


Tedgens High School AU

by jusains



Category: Starkid, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, tgwdlm - Fandom
Genre: A lot of swearing because I don’t have any self control, Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, High School, High School AU, M/M, Project, i don’t know, nerd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-02-07 08:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 39,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18616522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jusains/pseuds/jusains
Summary: A High School AU, where all of the tgwdlm character are like 17 and go to High School. Henry is a shy nerd and Ted is that one lazy asshole kid. They have to work on a project together, what more can I say? Enjoy.





	1. Project Partners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more of an introduction. The next chapters will be better, I swear

“Ted Richards and Henry Hidgens.”

Wait no. Oh _god_  no. 

Why do teachers always insist on choosing project pairings? Henry doesn‘t need to be forced to come out of his shell, he‘s completely fine alone. And it‘s not like he doesn‘t have any friends. 

He hesitantly turns around to Ted now, who winks at him, as soon as their eyes meet, causing Henry to quickly turn back. He starts to fiddle with his pen to at least do _something_. It’s a nervous quirk, something he does, whenever he feels uncomfortable in social situations. He can feel his cheeks go all warm and he knows he’s blushing and he really hopes no one’s looking at him, because good God, that’s embarrassing. 

He doesn’t like Ted. And Henry is generally not the kind of person to just _hate_  people. He really tries to be open and decent to everyone, but Ted is the most chaotic person, Henry has ever known. He is stupidly handsome, but at the same time he’s so mouthy and he’s always saying the wrong things and he seems really lazy. It‘s not like he actually has good grades and he doesn‘t even seem to try and improve. And Henry can tolerate him in class, but he really does not want to do a damn project with him, because he can already see himself doing it all alone. He’d rather do it with somebody else. Anybody, really. 

He’d even prefer Chad and they _did_  make out in the janitors broom closet once. That was when Henry still had a crush on him, before Chad started ignoring him, because _he’s not gay like Henry_. 

Alright, maybe not Chad. 

The bell chimes in and Henry quickly shoves his stuff into his backpack in order to be able to stop Ted, before he can disappear.

Ted’s already leaving the room and Henry has to run to catch up. 

“Ted!”

Ted stops and turns around to him. 

“Hey Hidgens.”

He looks at him, all smug and amused. At this point, Henry’s pretty sure he always looks at anyone and anything like that. 

“Hello Ted”, Henry answers. 

“Let me guess. The project?”

“I think it’s important that we start early enough..-“ Henry stops talking when he sees Ted roll his eyes. 

“God, you’re such a nerd.”

He opens his mouth to say something, preferably something clever to hit back, but he can’t think of anything. He’d love to just give up and go home and watch a musical to calm his nerves, but he can’t deny that he desperately wants a good grade. 

Ted tilts his head, still staring at Henry. It does make Henry nervous, but he tries to look tough and not scared at all. 

“Alright, I’m not an asshole. Are you free now?”, Ted then says. 

“Yes! Sure.” Henry’s voice went at least an octave up, even though he tried to contain his relieve. 

“Okay, library?”

“Yes.”

 —

They sit down and Henry reads through the task again, mostly to calm himself down. He’s not good at being social and Ted is basically a stranger. They have to read a book and present and interpret it. Easy, actually, except Ted is totally not gonna read any of the books that are written down there. 

“What do you want to read?”, Henry asks and slides the list over to Ted. 

He sighs. “I don’t know.” He lets his finger wander over the list, stopping at Jane Austen’s _Pride and Prejudice_. “Not this one, that’s so gay”, he mumbles, before he continues reading.

“It’s actually really good”, Henry notes, “But alright, we’ll take another one if your masculinity is so fragile.” He’s mostly hitting back, because it annoys him when people use _gay_ as an insult. 

“What? No! My masculinity is not fragile.” He looks so offended now and Henry can’t help but smile a little, because this is exactly what he expected. Ted takes a pen from Henry and circles _Pride and Prejudice_. “We’re gonna read Jane Austen”, he says.

“Are you sure you’re not too straight for that?”, Henry asks, not exactly sure where that courage came from, but he genuinely enjoys seeing Ted blush. 

“Jesus Henry, just let it go.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“We’ll have to read it first, right?”

“I guess. I mean I actually already did.”

“Of course you did.”

“Are you going to read it?”

“Yeah?! ..Or I’ll watch the movie at least.”

“Well thank you for that commitment.”

“That’s just how great of a person I am.”

Henry rolls his eyes and Ted smiles. This might actually work. He’s not that bad right? 

 —

“Henry is it you?”

His mother calls for him as soon as he stepped through the door. He goes for the living room, where he suspects her voice came from, carefully making a big step over Frank-N-Furter, his cat who for some reason, chose to lay down in the middle of the floor. 

“It is me, indeed”, he says. 

She‘s sitting on the couch and looks up after he entered the living room. 

“Where have you been?”

“Working on a project.” He sits down next to her and takes a look at the cover of the book she’d been reading before he came. It’s another David Nicholls. 

“And here I sat, thinking you might have a date.”

“You’re funny, mother”, he says in a mocking voice.

“I know son.”

He chuckles and opens his arms for Frank, who apparently followed him and now jumps into his lab.

“What kind of project?”

“Book-Project.”

“With whom? Or is it alone?”

“A guy in my class.”

“Oh.” She raises an eyebrow.

He never actually told her about being gay, he told neither of his parents. She just kind of always knew, always suspected it. Therefore, she’s always doing that little “Oh”, no matter what the gender. He’s not sure why, maybe to show him that she doesn’t mind. Maybe this is her way of showing him it’s okay. Her way of making sure, he doesn’t find himself forced into some kind of heteronormative role, sucked up with toxic masculinity. And he kind of appreciates it, because she isn’t pushing him in any direction, she’s simply making sure that he knows, she’s not trying to block out any kind of possibility. 

She cares about absolutely everybody’s well-being, always wants to make sure that everybody feels comfortable all the time.

“And.. is he cute?”

“Good god mom.”

“Sorry.” She quickly opens her book again and starts reading. Or at least she pretends to. 

“He has the biggest mouth, he’s so full of himself. And he’s most likely not going to read alright? I’m not exactly keen on working with him.”

“I just feel like you need to resort your priorities sometimes. All you do is think about school and good grades.”

“That’s a weird thing for you to say, considering you want me succeed in life.”

“You know what? Do your thing, you’re doing great. I shouldn’t put any pressure on you.”

“I guess.”

“And Henry, if you‘re not interested in a relationship or.. sex, that‘s alright too. There‘s nothing wrong with you and-..“ She stops when she sees the look on his face. 

“Okay, thanks.. thank you“, he mumbles, unsure about what else he‘s supposed to say. 

“If you want to talk about anything, you can always come to me.”

“Thank you, but I don’t. ..but I will.”

“Good.. good.”

Henry pulls Frank-N-Furter up into his arms now. 

“We’ll go upstairs.”

“Alright, see you for dinner.”

“Yes.”

Then he leaves, carrying Frank, who’s weirdly hanging in his arms. 

 —

“Who do you have?”, Emma asks, when they walk to school the next morning. They’re neighbours, so they more or less grew up together. She’s basically Henrys only close friend. Bill and Charlotte, their other friends, are actually Emma’s friends, who kind of started tolerating Henry in their group

“Ted Richards”, Henry says. 

She winces. “Ugh.”

“You?”

“That Paul.”

“Matthews?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s cute.”

“You think so?” She avoids his gaze, smiling now. 

“Yes and so do you.”

“Kind of, yeah. He’s nice. I don’t know.”

They walk in silence for a while, with Emma seemingly deep in thought. 

“Isn’t he friends with Ted though?”, Emma then asks. 

“I don’t know. I barely see them together. I don’t know if Ted has that many friends.”

“He’s pretty annoying.”

“He’s alright. He’s not as bad as I thought he would be.”

“What are you guys reading? I bet he won’t read a single word.”

“Pride and Prejudice. He said he’ll at least watch the movie adaption and it’s actually quite good, so I guess it’ll work.”

“Pride and Prejudice?”

“Yes. He made a joke about it being gay, so I accused him of having a fragile masculinity and he got really defensive real quick.”

She laughs. 

“Well it’s a good one. We couldn’t make up our minds yet.”

They arrive at school and for some reason, Paul and Ted are standing in front of it, talking, but apparently waiting too, because Paul waves at them, as soon as he spots Emma. 

“Hey!”, they both say, before Paul starts raving to Emma about some idea he had and they wander off.

Henry and Ted end up standing there completely alone and Henry prays for Ted to say something, because he’s really not good at this. To his relief, he does.

“I watched it.”

“What?”

“The movie. I watched it, alright?”

“That was quick.”

“What happens now? Are we meeting up or something?”

“Yes, sure, we can. When are you free?”

“I don‘t know. Always? It‘s not like I have any hobbies.”

“That‘s a weird thing to say with so much confidence“, Henry notes. 

“I guess.”

“How about today?”, Henry gets himself to ask. The quicker they get this over, the better. 

“Yeah that’s fine. Yours or mine?”

“Why not the library?”

“I kind of really can’t stand it there.”

“Okay. Your place then.”

“Cool, see you after school.” He nudges him into the shoulder and leaves. 

Henry simply stands there for a while, still feeling the push of Teds hand on his shoulder. He feels weird, suddenly, unsure about what he’s supposed to think. And he feels way too nervous about meeting Ted _after school_. 

What the hell is wrong with him? 


	2. Ted flirts out of boredom and Henry ends up crushing on him

Ted doesn’t wait for Henry in front of the school after school and therefore Henry asks Paul for Ted’s address, figuring they never said they’d meet in front of the school, so maybe Ted thought he knows where he lives. 

As soon as he arrives at Teds house, he realises, that’s not the case. 

Ted opens the door, looking tired.

“Henry I can’t today, something came up.”

“Oh..okay.” Henry frowns, because Ted is keeping the door weirdly close. 

“Are you alright Ted?” 

He nods, a little too quick. He seems to want Henry to leave, but for some reason, Henry can‘t get himself to do it, so he just keeps standing there. Keeps staring at Ted, who looks so exhausted. 

Ted sighs now. “What’s up?”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

Ted seems to hesitate, before he fully opens the door. 

The smell of booze and cigarette smoke punches Henry in the face like a fist out of the nowhere. He certainly did not expect that. 

“There you go, alright?”, Ted says. 

“What happened? Are you drunk?”

“No, that’s my dad. He’s an alcoholic.”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine. It’s just.. It’s embarrassing and I thought about you coming here earlier and I realised that I actually don’t want you to see where I live.”

Henry _does_  want to reply, but he doesn’t manage for some reason. Maybe he’s to baffled.

“This is fucked up, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I stood you up.”

“It’s okay.”

“It is?” He seems a little too surprised. 

“I really don’t mind this Ted.”

“Oh?..”

“You could have just told me.”

“But..you always seem so.. perfect. I bet your house doesn’t smell like a garbage bin. You have everything sorted out, you.. you know what you’re doing.”

“Believe me I don’t. And even if I did, I wouldn’t condemn you for the opposite.”

Ted chuckles, avoiding Henrys gaze now. “Condemn me for the opposite”, he quietly repeats. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and starts to fiddle with the door handle.

“Since you’re already here.. do you want to come in?”, he then asks, seemingly after having worked up the courage for the last few seconds.

“Okay sure.”

—

He lets him in and leads him to a room at the end of the corridor. He closes the door behind the two of them and goes to open the window. 

“Where’s your mom?”, Henry asks, realising only now that Ted only mentioned his dad. 

“Don’t ask me that.” The sound of his voice is oddly crushing. It‘s definite and almost menacing, but at the same time it sounds like a quiet, sad plea. 

“I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer”, Henry quickly makes clear, letting his gaze wander around the room now, mostly to escape Teds.

He notices how dull the room looks. It’s looks more like a cheap hotel room, than like the bedroom of a seventeen-year-old. There’s literally nothing in here that makes it look personal, nothing that screams ‘Ted Richards’. Unless Ted Richards is as dull as this room. 

“Alright, let‘s talk about Jane Austen”, Ted says now, most likely in order to change the topic and distract from his mom. 

“Okay. How did you like the movie?”

“It was awfully cheesy.”

Henry can’t help but chuckle. 

“I thought you’d say that.”

Ted lightly shakes his head, but he smiles now. “Whatever.”

—

They sat down on Teds bed, because his desk is a mess. Ted’s searching the web, while Henry takes random notes. That’s until Henry looks up and catches Ted looking at him. 

“Why are you not working?”

“Can’t I just look at you?”

“No that’s weird.”

“It’s romantic.”

“Well why would you be romantic now?”

“Am I not allowed to?”

“No.”

“Yes I am?”

“Why do you want to stare so bad?”

“I’m gazing. You’re cute. That’s why.”

Henry hesitates and prays he’s not blushing. He quickly focuses on the piece of paper in front of him again, nervously scribbling on it too. 

“What? No..”

“Why not?”

“Ted can we concentrate? Why are you doing this now?”

“I’m bored.”

“You’re flirting out of boredom?”

“Why not? I’m still telling the truth.”

“Good God.”

“What?”

“Your motive certainly makes me feel flattered”, Henry says, his voice soaked in irony. 

“It does?”

“No.”

“Yes, it does. You’re getting all nervous.”

“I’m not. You’re unbelievably annoying.”

Henry can’t believe that this is happening. Ted is flirting out of boredom and he actually does feel flattered. Why does this have to happen to him? He doesn’t like Ted and he’s not gonna crush on him, just because Ted has no shame and a big mouth. He probably talks to everyone like that anyway and Henry’s only into it, because no one ever flirts with him. Plus Ted’s most certainly another Chad, who’s going to realise that he’s not ready to be out, right after giving Henry hope. Then he‘s gonna take it out on him and leave him alone in some broom closet. Right after lulling him into thinking that they can actually work. 

“Just..don’t alright?”, Henry therefore mumbles. 

Ted holds his hands up, as if he surrenders and it’s kind of cute. Except it’s not, because Henry doesn’t care, that’s for sure. 

“I promise I will stop”, he says. 

“Thank you.”

“You are.. _cute_  though.”

Henry can’t help but chuckle now. “Ted no.”

Ted opens his mouth to say something, but at the same time they hear a dull crash, coming from somewhere else in the house. 

Henry looks at Ted, looking for an answer, because that did sound like a person falling over. Ted just keeps looking at the door and sighs now. 

“I’m sorry, you should go”, he says. 

“What? Are you going to be alright? Was that your dad? I can call an ambulance or something.”

“No, I’ve got this. Just..leave.” Ted smiles at him, but it doesn’t look genuine at all. 

“Okay.” Henry quickly gathers all of his stuff and gets up. Ted opens the door for him and he steps into the corridor. He had already forgotten how bad it smelled there and is therefore overwhelmed by it all over again. 

“Can you find your way out?”

Henry nods. 

“Okay, thank you, see you tomorrow.”

Ted hurries into another door in the corridor and Henry stands there for a moment, before his feet set into motion and he slowly moves to the front door, confused now. The door Ted disappeared in is half open and therefore Henry catches a glimpse of the room. He can see Ted helping a man up, can hear them mumble something. “I’m sorry”, the man says. “It’s fine dad. It’s okay.” He heaves him on the couch and makes sure he stays there. “I’ll get you some water”, he says and that’s when Henry slowly realises, that he stopped and stared. He quickly walks over to the front door and sneaks out. 

He stops in front of the house, to rearrange his mind. He’s never been as surprised as he was earlier, even though this is one of the biggest movie cliches ever. The douchebag has a soft side and an alcoholic father and a mother that is god knows where. Except Ted’s barely a douchebag.

Henry really didn’t expect it from Ted, none of this. He’s not sure what exactly he did expect, figuring he didn’t expect anything at all. He never even thought about Ted, never spent any time thinking about why Ted is how he is. But he does now, he’s certainly going to think for a while. He shouldn’t have typecasted him so quick. 

—

“Henry?” 

“Hm?” He looks up, realising he did nothing but poke around in his fries with his fork. Emma looks at him, obviously a little concerned. 

“Are you okay?”

“Sure.” He didn’t sleep that much, to be honest. On the one hand, he couldn’t stop thinking about Teds life and on the other hand he couldn’t stop thinking about Ted, whom he does have a crush on now. This is the stupidest thing that has ever happened to him. Ted flirted with him _once_  (out of boredom, not because he‘s actually interested) and Henry immediately stumbled and fell. He didn’t even flirt that much, he simply called Henry _cute_ , like a baby kitten or a child. 

It’s been three days, since he was at Teds house and they haven’t talked since. He tried to fight the crush at first, but that basically ended in a massacre where everyone lost and died and then he tried to accept it, but that was a mess too. He’s ignoring it now, as good as possible, but Ted is sitting on the other side of the cafeteria, completely alone and Henry has the irreversible urge to go and sit next to him. They wouldn’t even have to talk, Henry would simply love to be near him. And he feels bad, because Ted sits alone, even though Ted doesn’t seem to mind.

His hair is messy today, messier than in general and he’s wearing a baggy sweater that makes him look smaller than he actually is, considering he’s almost as tall as Henry and Henry is tall. It makes him look cute and it makes Henry want to hug him and Henry is going to admit that one to himself.

Henry‘s almost about to get up and go over to him, when he sees Paul coming in and sitting next to Ted. They talk and Ted laughs at something and it‘s adorable. Why does he have to be so handsome too? 

“Henry seriously, where are you today?”, Emma asks again.

“He’s over there somewhere”, Charlotte says and points in Teds direction. Henry quickly rips his gaze off Ted and looks back at his fries. In his peripheral vision, he can see Emma turning around, trying to find out what caught his gaze. Or who. 

“Oh there’s Paul”, she says. 

Henry would love to be able to just disappear, because he knows exactly what will follow next. “With Ted.” He lightly flinches for some reason. He can see Emma looking back at him and doesn’t dare to look up. 

“Ted?”, she repeats. 

He doesn’t answer and instead shoves fries into his mouth, even though he’s not hungry at all.

“Henry, answer.”

“Oh, what? I didn’t see him there”, he says quietly.

“Woah, I can’t _believe_  you’re into that scumbag! Oh my god.”

“He’s not a _scumbag_!”

She simply looks at him, tilting her head, because he kind of proved her right. He kind of outed his ridiculous crush. 

“And I’m not into him”, he adds, but it’s kind of pointless, because he is and it’s obvious. 

Bill turns around to look at Ted. 

“If he wasn’t that mean, I’d get it.”

“He’s not mean actually. He’s nice.” 

“You should know it best, since you actually spend time with him”, Emma notes. 

“Wait you _are_ spending time together? How?”, Bill asks. 

“We’re project partners actually.”

“Well that’s how the romances start in every movie.”

“Except this is real life. This is not something someone just..made up. Ugh.”

He pushes the fries away, so he can rest his head on the table and hide forever. 

“They’re coming over”, Emma notes. 

“Oh God no”, Henry mumbles and shoots up. He panics and gathers his stuff, with the goal to disappear before they arrive. He gets up, but before he can run and hide, Ted is behind him.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I-..nowhere.” He turns to Ted and realises that he stands kind of close, what causes him to stumble back. Emma extends her arm to keep him from falling and lightly pushes him back to Ted. 

“I’m sorry for about three days ago”, Ted says now.

“It’s fine.”

“Do you have time today?”

“Today? I..yes. I guess.”

“That rhymed.”

“Yes, it did.” Henry laughs awkwardly. Ted smiles, looking amused. 

“Great. Your place?”

“Mh-mh.” He manages to nod.

“See you after school.”

He turns to go, reaching for Paul who was too distracted by someone else. 

They leave and Henry slowly lets himself sink back onto the bench, taking a deep breath.

“Wow, I’ve never seen anyone less infatuated. You’re so not into him”, Emma comments.

“You barely drooled”, Bill adds.

Charlotte laughs quietly.

“I hate every single one of you”, Henry mumbles. He’s already somewhere else with his thoughts now though. Ted’s coming to his house. He’ll see his room. He should have tidied up a little this morning.

Henry can only hope that his mom keeps her joy, of him bringing home other friends than Emma, to herself, especially since Henry and Ted aren’t really friends. 

He can only hope it’s not gonna be a mess. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to comment!  
> Also: Do you all want Emma and Paul to get together or do you want me to make it really gay and put Emma/Charlotte and Paul/Bill together? (Please answer that because I dunno, both works for the story)  
> (You can also answer it on my tumblr, if that‘s where you came from)


	3. More flirting. Like a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna change the title at some point, I‘m just too stupid to think of sth cool.

“Mom?”, Henry asks, as soon as he stepped into the house, with Ted following him.

She sticks her head out of the kitchen and her whole face lights up. Oh god.

“Oh well hello.”

“This is Ted“, Henry says and Ted waves lightly. 

“Your partner?”

“My..? He’s.. we’re working on a project together.”

He can see Ted smile. He seems way too amused by all of this. 

“That’s what I meant.”

“Yes, except it didn’t sound like that.”

“Let me hope.”

“Oh God, we’re going upstairs.” He reaches for Teds wrist and pulls him to the stairs. 

“It was nice meeting you Mrs Hidgens”, Ted quickly says, while stumbling behind Henry. 

“Likewise!”

Henry more or less pushes Ted into his room and closes the door. 

“Well someone’s excited to have me here”, Ted says. 

“What? No.”

“Are you gonna show me to the bed?”

“Why are you like this?”

“Hey we’re- Oh, you have a cat.” Henry’s kind of relieved, because apparently Frank did distract Ted from going any further, wherever he was going with all of this.

“Yes. Why? Are you allergic?” 

“No, she’s so cute, damn.”

“It’s a he actually.”

“He’s cute then. What’s his name?”

“Frank-N-Furter.”

Ted looks up and stares at him for a moment, looking completely done. 

“What?”, Henry asks. 

“Like Rocky Horror-Frank-N-Furter?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell me you’re into musicals.”

“I kind of am. And no one dislikes the _‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’_ Ted.”

“I just really didn’t expect it.”

“Why is it so hard to believe?”

“I don’t know. Since you’re so smart, I kind of figured you just study in your free time.”

“Did you really think I’m that dull?”

“No.”

“How come _you_ knew who Frank-N-Furter is?”

“It’s common knowledge.”

“It is?”

“Like you said, no one hates the _‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’_. Can we let it go?” 

Henry smiles and nods. He gets rid of his backpack and throws it next to the bed. 

When he looks back at Ted, he sees him sitting on the edge of his bed, next to Frank while carefully letting Frank snuff his hand. 

“Is he going to bite me if I pet him?”

“Probably”, Henry says, even though Frank totally wouldn’t. 

Ted looks up, surprised. 

“Seriously?”

Henry smiles. “He can sense fear and you’re full of it. He will most likely murder you if you touch him.”

Ted tilts his head, looking at Henry for a moment, his lips are warped into an oblique smile and Henry has to bite his lip, to keep himself from smiling back. 

“I really want to pet him. You’re a liar right?“

“Do it, coward.” 

Ted smiles at Henry’s choice of words and slowly lets his fingers run over Franks fur, smiling even brighter right away. His eyes are glowing in excitement and it’s so adorable, it makes Henry want to sit next to him and take his hand and lean against his shoulder. Henry just stands there and stares at Ted for a while, kind of zoning out too. 

He only realises he did, after Ted looked up and stared back. He winks at Henry and Henry quickly looks away.

“Who was gazing now?”, Ted asks. 

Of course he has to mock Henry for of it. Henry despises that, but he also saw it coming and he can’t deny that he kind of likes arguing with Ted by now. It’s not like they’re fighting anyway. 

“I wasn’t gazing, I zoned out.” Henry now sits down on the bed as well. 

“Sure. Keep on telling _that_ to yourself.”

“I will, because it’s true.”

“It’s not like I didn’t notice you staring in the cafeteria too.”

“What? I never laid my eyes on you in any cafeteria.”

Ted laughs and Henry can’t help but smile. 

“You did and we both know it.”

“No.”

“What happened? Having a crush now?”

“I absolutely do not.” Except he does. And this right here isn’t exactly helping. Ted sitting on his bed, cuddling his cat and mocking him for staring. Even Frank-N-Furter seems to like him, as he’s now nuzzling his little head in Teds hand. Of course he does. He’s a damn traitor of a cat. 

“And even if I was accidentally looking in your direction, while I zoned out in the cafeteria.. how did _you_  notice?”

Ted smiles, avoiding Henrys gaze now. 

“I’m not going to comment on that.”

“Yes, don’t admit you were staring.” Why is he flirting back now? 

Ted raises an eyebrow, looking (positively) surprised. He noticed it. 

“I’d say gazing.”

Now Henry is the one who’s surprised. He should have seen it coming though. 

“But you told me not to flirt with you anymore”, Ted then adds.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“And you’re blushing.”

“It’s hot in here.”

“Because of me?”

“No?!”

Ted chuckles and focuses on Frank-N-Furter again. 

“We should get started”, Henry says. 

Ted doesn’t actually react to that and asks another question instead. 

“Are you going to the party?”

“What party?”

“This weekend. I don’t remember who is throwing it though.”

Henry vaguely remembers Emma asking him the same thing. He remembers answering with a definite ‘no’ and telling her, he hates these kinds of events and he would rather die than participate in it. But if Ted is going, maybe he will reconsider it.

“No, I don’t think so”, he says. Ted will have to persuade him, if he _actually_  wants him to come and the sudden disappointment in his expression is not just Henrys wishful thinking. 

“Well I think about going.”

“And you want me to be there too?”

“Yes”, he says, with a confidence that makes Henrys heart jump. 

“I don’t know“, Henry simply utters.

“I think you should go.”

“Why?”

“I really want you to.”

Henry smiles, quickly lowering his gaze, so Ted doesn’t see. 

“Why?”, he asks again, wanting to hear Ted say it, even if Ted is just playing and not meaning any of it. 

“Because I want to spend time with you, nerd.”

“Don’t call me nerd.”

“Darling.”

“That’s worse.” He liked it. 

“Are you going to be there?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’ll go if Emma does.” She will if he asks her.

“So I’ll _probably_ see you there then?”

“Maybe.”

“Henry, you’re a _tease_.”

“What? I’m not.”

Ted laughs and Henry really tries not to at least smile (but he fails). Something about Ted makes Henry feel comfortable. He‘s not shy around him at all, he‘s just being himself. It‘s kind of like with Emma, except he has known Emma his whole life and he has known Ted for like a week. 

 —

“Are you going to the party now?”, Henry asks Emma the next morning. 

“I don’t know.“

“Oh.” How is he going to put this without her freaking out about him being so into Ted that he’s willing to go to a damn party for him?

“Paul’s gonna be there”, he tries, “And Charlotte said she’ll go, right?”

He can literally see her frown, see how she hesitates for a moment. 

“Are you trying to talk me into going?”

“What?” He laughs nervously. This is a mess. 

“Why?”, she asks.

“I don’t know. It’s just.. it might be fun.”

“It _might be fun_? Who are you? You hate that shit.”

Henry keeps quiet, because yes, who is he? What is he doing? This is so stupid. 

“Henry seriously, I’m worried.”

He gives up. “Ted asked me and I have a crush on him.”

In his peripheral vision, he can see her looking at him, her lower jaw dropped to the ground. 

“Oh..god.”

“Yeah, thank you, I hate me too.”

“He asked you to come?”

“Yes. But it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“Kind of, but we’re totally going to the party now.”

“What? No, I wouldn’t dare.”

“He wants you to come. He might like you, you know?”

“I don’t know. He keeps flirting but-“ “What?”

“He keeps flirting with me.”

“That’s kind of a hint.”

“But I don’t know if he actually means it or if he’s just bored and I’m..right there.”

“There’s just one way to find out. I’ll pick you up at 9 and we’ll go together.”

“I don’t know, Em..”

“That wasn’t a question.”

“Oh. ...Okay. I guess.”

“Good. Great.”

—

They can already hear the music from afar. Emma tucked Henrys arm into hers, because both of them forgot to bring a jacket and it‘s colder than they expected. 

As soon as they step into the house, they are welcomed by Paul, who has a bright smile on his face. 

“Emma, hey! ..and Henry!”

“Hey!” She hugs him, letting go of Henrys arm immediately. 

Henry looks around the corridor, obviously looking for Ted. 

“I think Ted’s by the bar”, Paul says. 

“What? I wasn’t looking for him.”

Paul chuckles. 

“Just go. Second door on the left.”

Henry blushes and is suddenly thankful for the color-changing lights, because they might just cover it. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome man. I think he’s waiting.” 

Henry makes his way through the corridor. He can see Ted before he even entered the room. He seems to mix some kind of drink and doesn’t notice Henry. There are too many people around anyway, it’s not like they’re alone. Henry hesitates and thinks about not talking to Ted right now, because he feels like he has to work up the courage first. Maybe he can come back later. 

That’s when Ted looks up and as soon as his eyes met Henrys, a bright smile begins to form on his lips. Henry can see Ted mouthing his name, but it’s too loud for Henry to hear him say it. He catches himself walking over to Ted and before he can properly think about it, he stands right in front of him. 

“Hey”, Ted says.

“Hi.”

“You came?”

“Looks like it.”

“Lucky me.”

Lucky Ted. Sure. Lucky Henry, if he’s not dreaming this right now. 

“Do you want a drink? I’m not going to pretend that I’m good at mixing drinks, but I’m trying, alright? ..But there’s beer too.”

Henry chuckles, but shakes his head. 

“No, I don’t really drink.”

“That’s good. Really role-model-y.”

“Isn’t it?”

They stare at each other, then on the floor, smiling like complete idiots. 

“And..are you enjoying it so far?”, Ted asks, gesturing around the room. 

“I don’t know, I arrived three minutes ago.”

“And the first thing you did was look for me?”

“Paul kind of send me in here.”

Ted raises an eyebrow. “Oh. Gonna have to thank him for that I guess.”

“Thank him for making me talk to you?”

“You say that like you don’t want to talk to me.”

“I secretly hate every second of it.”

“I thought so.”

Henry smiles. 

“Are you drunk? Is that why you’re flirting?”, he then asks.

“No, I didn’t drink a single drop yet. I’m dehydrating.”

“Of course you are.”

Ted chuckles. 

“No but seriously. This..” he taps the glass next to him on the bar, “..was going to be my first glass and now I feel kind of bad drinking it, since you’re not drinking.”

Henry grins, scrunching his nose. 

“It’s fine. Go for it.”

“Guys, we’re playing spin-the-bottle!”, Emma says, who’s suddenly appearing next to them. Maybe they were to focused on each other to notice her coming in. 

“What? No”, Henry says, but Emma already grabbed his hand and started pulling him god knows where. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we /all/ know what happens in the next chapter. 
> 
> Also: You guys basically had the same opinion as I did (we love paulkins but also gay!) and it ended up being 50/50 so /I still don’t know/.  
> But thanks to everyone who replied!  
> As you might have already seen in the tags, I think I’ll go with the gay because I’ve always been doing Paulkins till now and I kinda wanna try Charlotte and Emma (and also Bill and Paul cause duh)
> 
> Feel free to comment!


	4. Spin the bottle and other flops (1)

Henry is nervous, as soon as they sit in a circle on the floor. His palms are all sweaty and he keeps rubbing them on his pants to dry them. Ted is right next to him for some reason. He is sitting cross-legged and Henry can feel Teds knee touching his thigh. They are about ten people and all of them are taking turns in spinning an empty beer glass-bottle. There’s Emma kissing Charlotte, some guy kissing some other girl, Charlotte kissing some guy.

It wasn’t Henrys turn yet, Teds neither. Henry just kind of sits there and watches and tries not to think about Teds knee touching his leg or Ted looking at him, every now and then. He tries not to think about having to kiss someone in this circle soon (for three whole seconds) and he tries not to think about how much he hopes it’s gonna be Ted.

When it’s Teds turn, Henry can feel Emmas eyes on him and when he looks up, she winks. He quickly looks away, hoping to avoid blushing. Of course that’s why she forced the two of them to participate in this. He should have seen it coming.

The probability of the bottle landing on Henry is slim to none and he knows that and he’s not even sure if he actually wants it to happen, because if he kisses Ted now, he’ll probably end up liking him even more and he’s not sure if he can handle that.

His eyes follow the bottle while it spins and he starts chewing on his lip. He should have stayed at home.

At least his mom is happy. She was way too exited about him going to a party on a Saturday evening, instead of staying home and watching tv. He had told her about how there’ll probably be alcohol around, so she would make him stay home, but she didn’t. She just told him to _have fun and actually talk to people_.

And there he is now, staring at the bottle that is pointing at him. Well shit.

Emma cheers and Ted laughs (nervously?). Henry looks up to him and Ted comes closer, carefully placing his hand on Henrys cheek.

“Is this alright with you?”, Ted asks.

Henry manages a nod.

Maybe Ted’s a horrible kisser and everything will go back to normal.

Ted moves even closer to him now and places his lips on Henrys.

Henry holds his breath.

It surprised him, the feeling of Teds lips meeting his, even though this is exactly what he knew was going to happen a second ago.

The others start to count.

“3!”

Henry closes his eyes and starts to move his lips against Teds. Ted sighs quietly and content and for some reason that makes Henry a little bit more confident. Ted’s not a horrible kisser, he’s great. But _that_ was obvious, wasn’t it?

“2!”

Henry recognises the bitter taste of alcohol on Teds tongue and figures, that he must have poured down the glass of booze, before he followed him and Emma here. Maybe he was nervous too.

“1!”

His heart is beating so goddamn fast. The time is over but Ted doesn’t pull back, so neither does Henry. He doesn’t want this to stop, not yet anyway.  
He reaches for Ted’s shirt now and gets a hold of the fabric. He clings to it, to regain some kind of sense for reality. He’s already too far gone by now.

“Guys?” It’s Emma.

Ted pulls Henry even closer, reaching for his waist now.  
Henry did imagine it feeling good, but he didn’t imagine it feeling _this good_. This is new and it’s great.

“Oh _god_ , get a room!”

Ted pulls away, still kind of holding Henry. They linger in each other’s touch a little longer, not yet daring to completely break away. Henry opens his eyes, only now realising how beautiful Teds are. They are soft and brown and his eyelashes are amazingly long.

“Henry do you want to spin or..?”, Emma asks.

He breaks away from Ted now, quickly patting Teds shirt even again.

“No, I’m out.”

Then he gets up, fleeing as quick as possible.

—

He comes to a stop in the corridor. 

“Henry?” Ted followed him and stops, as soon as he spots Henry. He smiles now. 

“Hi”, he mutters.

“Hi?” Henry’s heart is beating fast. Like really, really rollercoaster-fast. He finds himself still caught in some kind of daze, still feeling light and all nervous from the kiss. 

“Hi”, Ted says again. 

“What are you up to?”, Henry manages to ask, while he tries not to think about Teds lips, not to stare too. Ted looks so damn good though, Henry can’t help but watch as the color-changing party lights wander over his face, going from blue to purple to red and to purple again. If he only stepped a little closer to Ted, he could kiss him again. 

“I’m not sure, depends.”

“On what?”

“You?”

“Me..”

“Do you remember how we just kissed?”

“Yes, I was there.”

He innerly slaps himself. What? 

“Henry do you wanna go somewhere else and make out?” 

The question catches Henry off-guard, but it also feels warm and prickles like a swarm of butterflies. He still needs some time to process it and therefore ends up in between opening and closing his mouth over and over again, while Ted hesitantly watches him. 

“I can‘t believe how blunt you are”, Henry finally mumbles. 

“People normally like that about me.”

“I‘ve never heard anyone say that they like that about you.”

Ted laughs. 

Henry looks at him for a while and tries to get himself to say ‚no’. _Don’t do it_ , he thinks, _don’t be a slut now, Henry_.

But he can’t help it, because Ted is still looking at him, with his soft eyes and his cheeky smirk. And Henry‘s not gonna learn from his mistakes, is he? 

He takes Teds hand and pulls him into the closest room, which turns out to be a laundry room. He closes the door and pins Ted against the next best wall, finally kissing him again. Ted seems surprised at first, but he quickly welcomes the kiss, eagerly kissing Henry back. He rests his hands on Henrys waist and pulls him even closer, making him tumble into his arms. 

“I can’t believe you actually get the things you want by being so blunt”, Henry mumbles against Teds lips, in between two kisses. 

“You’re not a _thing_. Don’t objectify yourself like that”, Ted teases him. 

Henry can’t help but smile. Then Ted smiles too and they have to break away from the kiss, because it’s barely working like that. 

Ted rests his forehead against Henrys now and brings his hand up to Henrys face, to trace the soft route of his jaw. 

It‘s dark in the room, because neither of them bothered to switch on the lights.  There‘s just the moonlight, falling into the room through the only window and illuminating half of Teds face. It‘s making his skin look silvery-blue and it‘s reflecting in his eyes, making them sparkle even more. It makes him look even prettier than he already is, makes him look like a damn work of art, worth at least a few million dollars. 

“Henry?”

“Mh?”

“May I?” He lightly pushes his chin forward again. 

“Please”, Henry manages to utter. 

Ted kisses him again. And again and again and again and Henry can’t help but savour every second of it. This is too good to be true, but it’s somehow happening. It’s happening for real, not just in Henrys mind and it’s amazing. He buries his fingers in Teds hair and leans against him while Ted fully wraps his arms around his upper body now. 

The kisses go from gentle to messy, leaving them breathless, as they keep on clinging to each other, unable to actually break away. 

“Henry”, Ted murmurs against his lips, “Oh god.”

Henry can’t help but smile at this. 

“What?”

“I’m actually making out with you.”

“Oh you are? I didn’t realise.”

Ted chuckles and nudges Henrys shoulder. 

“Fucking shut up”, he mumbles. 

“You started it.”

“I guess I did.”

They kiss again. 

“Henry?”

Henry smiles, breaking away from Ted once again. 

“What?”

Ted doesn’t answer right away. He just starts playing with the fabric of Henrys pullover and avoids his gaze, looking at his lips or on the floor, anywhere but into his eyes. 

“You know how I flirted with you?”

“Yes.”

“Out of boredom?”

“Yes?”

“It wasn’t out of boredom.” 

_Oh_. Okay. Henry’s not sure where Ted is going with this, but he’s definitely surprised. 

“It wasn’t?”

“No. I like you, actually.”

Henry’s heart skips a beat. 

Ted slightly starts caressing Henrys side with his thumb and that’s the only thing Henry can think about for a few seconds. That and his words.

“Like..?”

“Yeah, you know, I _like_ you.”

“Oh.”

Ted just looks at him, suddenly not so confident anymore. He looks weirdly scared. 

Henry wants to say something, but he can’t seem to get a word out and so he just stands there, baffled and silent. 

Ted drops his arms from Henrys waist now, slowly backing away. 

“Well this is not the response I was hoping for”, he quietly jokes. 

“Ted.. I’m..no, this-“ “It’s fine.”

“No, wait, I didn’t mean to just not say anything.”

Ted seems confused now. 

“What?”

Henry opens his mouth to answer, but at the same time, the door swings open. They look up to see Emma standing there and she’s obviously crying, her eyes all red and her lips shaking. 

“Sorry, I was looking for the bathroom”, she mumbles. 

“Are you alright?”, Henry asks, already making a step towards her, to calm her down. This is were his brother-instinct kicks in, even though they’re technically not siblings. 

She sniffles, but nods. 

“Yeah, sorry.”

Then she leaves again. 

“I should follow her”, Henry says. 

“Okay”, Ted mumbles. 

“But we.. we’ll talk”, Henry adds, looking at Ted who just nods, forcing a smile. 

Henry feels bad, leaving him here, especially since this is everything he dreamed of for the past two weeks. But he can’t think straight, he can’t think at all. He’s not even sure what he’s doing, his body is working on autopilot by now. He just follows Emma, because he feels like he has to.

So he asks around until a girl points him to the bathroom. 

He knocks. 

“Emma are you in there?”

“..Yeah.”

“Can you let me in?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to comment! ;)


	5. Spin the bottle and other flops (2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: physical abuse is mentioned (really slightly)
> 
> I just wanted to put a quick THANK YOU for all the positive responses to this!  
> I‘m glad you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.  
> Here you go with Chapter 5!

There’s a little click when she unlocks the door. He slips into the room and closes the door, before he looks at her. Her mascara is all smudged and she’s actually sobbing. Henry’s not sure when he last saw her cry. Emma never cries. She’s the tough one. 

“Emma?”

She turns away from him, rubbing her cheeks dry. 

“Charlotte just told me she’s in love with me”, she says, her voice shaking. 

“What?” 

“She’s so drunk, but drunk people tell the truth, don’t they?”

She turns back to him, looking at him with her asking gaze, looking devastated. 

“I don’t know.”

“She said she likes me as more than a friend, but I.. I mean I fucking love her, but not like that, you know? I mean I think I don’t. I don’t even know, Henry!”

“What did you do?”

“I said thanks and walked away.  _Who_  does that? I’m a horrible person.” 

Henry hesitates. He kind of just did the same thing, except he said nothing at all. Not even ‘thanks’. 

But Ted didn’t tell him he _loves_ him, right? He said he likes him. Like he’s interested in more. It’s not like they know each other as good as Emma and Charlotte know each other. 

When Charlotte tells Emma she likes her as more than a friend, she might actually mean love. 

“I don’t want to lose her, I love her so much”, Emma now says. 

“Do you love her or do you _love_ her?”

“God, I don’t fucking know!.. I never thought of her that way. She always has those..weird-ass boyfriends and she.. I don’t know.”

“Maybe you should talk to her.”

Great advice Henry. Maybe he should follow that himself. 

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“I kissed like three people tonight. Spin-the-bottle, you know? There was..some guy, Paul and Charlotte.”

“Paul too?”

“Yes! But Charlotte first. And kissing her felt..good. And I didn’t want it to feel good, right? I thought ‘shit Emma, she’s your friend. You can’t _like_ her!’ And then I kissed Paul and I hoped that it would feel fucking great, because he’s nice and he’s handsome and I just hoped for a kiss that would make me forget about Charlotte, but I felt nothing! I didn’t feel shit! And he kept asking me about Bill anyway, I think he might be interested in him.”

“But that’s good. She likes you, you like her..?”

“I’m just so..this is too much. I can’t even think anymore.”

“That’s okay. Take your time.”

“Can we talk about something else so I can, like..calm down?”

“Okay.”

“Okay. ..What the fuck just happened then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ted? And you? In..what was that? A laundry room?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Where you guys screwing in there?”

“Woah, no!”

“Sorry.”

“We just kissed.”

“ _Oh?_ ”She smiles now. 

“No, don’t be happy. I fucked up.”

“What do you mean?”

“He told me he likes me and I..forgot how to function. I just stared at him.”

“And then?”

“Then you came in and I followed you and he seemed hurt, but I-“ “Then what the fuck are you doing here? Go get him!”

“What I’m doing? You’re my best friend, I’m trying to make you feel better.”

“You’re into that guy though, right? _Even if_ I don’t understand why.”

“He’s so perfect, that’s why.”

“Go and tell him, dumbass!“

“Don’t you need me anymore?”

“I’m fine, fuck off.”

“Wow, okay, thanks for that.”

“Go, go, go!” She pushes him to the door. 

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll be fine.”

And just seconds later, he’s back in the corridor. 

—

Finding Ted in that house is harder than Henry thought. He’s not in the laundry room anymore, but to be honest, why would he stay there? He’s not in the kitchen, not in the living room, not by the bar. 

He searches through the whole house twice, until he finds him, wandering around upstairs, where no one is supposed to go. 

“There you are”, Henry says, also spotting the red plastic cup in Teds hand. 

Ted turns around to him. 

“Oh, hey Henry.”

“Hey Ted.”

“How’s Emma?”

“She’s gonna be okay.”

“That’s good.”

“Yes. ..Ted?”

“It’s fine Henry, you don’t have to feel bad.”

“I don’t feel..Ted, listen-“ “Come on”, he interrupts, “You seemed so relieved when she came, so you could finally escape it all.”

“No, I didn’t want to escape!”

“It’s okay, if you don’t feel the same way, I’m used to it. I’m not mad or anything, I just got hopeful as fuck when you kissed me.”

“What? Why are you used to it?“ 

“You know what? I actually didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean what I said.”

“What?”

“I don’t _like_ like you.”

“Don’t lie now. It’s okay, because-“ “No, it’s true alright? I just..got overwhelmed. I don’t like you like that. That’s ridiculous. I would never.”

“Oh..okay.” Well that hurt.

“You kiss strangers on parties, right? It’s no big deal.”

“Yes.. We’re not strangers though.”

“No.”

“Ted, I thought..” He sighs, giving up now. “Never mind.”

“What?”

“It was stupid to think that you actually see something in me.”

“Wait.” Ted steps closer to him, stumbling a little. 

“Are you drunk?”, Henry asks. 

“I don’t know. A little I guess.”

“Great.”

“Don’t judge me.”

“I’m not. It’s just.. I’ve left you alone for like ten minutes and you’re already getting wasted.”

Ted just shrugs. 

“I can’t do this”, Henry mumbles, before he turns away to go. He mostly wants to leave, because he actually feels like he’s going to cry. 

“Wait”, Ted jumps forward, reaching for Henrys wrist to hold him back. 

“What do you want from me?”, Henry snaps back, pulling his arm out of Teds grip by pulling it up. 

Ted quickly lets go of it and stumbles back, covering his face reflex-like, covering it from Henrys raised hand. 

It takes a moment until Henry realises what just happened. Ted already let his arms sink again and is now hesitantly watching Henrys reaction. 

“Oh god”, Henry mumbles, as it slowly dawns on him. 

Ted opens his mouth, arguably to say something, but then he doesn’t. 

“Ted, did your dad-” “No!” 

Henry looks at Ted, still remembering the fear he just saw in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to hit you.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” 

And with that, Ted pushes past him, hurrying down the stairs. 

Henry thinks about following him, unsure about whether or not he might like to be alone. When he finally decides on it, he can’t seem to find him. 

—

Instead, he finds Emma. She’s standing next to the beer, obviously helping herself unsparingly. 

“Hey, are you okay?”, he asks. 

“I’m fucking great, why are you asking?”

“You don’t seem fucking great.”

She laughs dryly. 

“Life is a mess Henry.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Charlotte’s currently making out with that freaking asshole _Sam_.”

“Good God, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We’re friends, she’s drunk. I might be over it tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Want some?” She taps the beer barrel.

“No.. or yes.”

She smiles, before she reaches for another red cup, filling it with beer.

“Talking to Ted went great I guess?”, she asks.

“Yes”, he mutters ironically.

“Thought so. Shit.”

She hands him the beer and he tries to chug it, without wincing. He didn’t think it’d be that disgusting, but it works somehow, he manages to chug it down. 

—

About an hour later, they’re both drunk. Henry didn’t see Ted anymore, figuring, he went home. Charlotte’s still with Sam and Henry and Emma are just sitting on the floor at this point, with their backs leaned against a wall. Emmas head is resting on Henrys shoulder. 

That’s when Paul comes in. 

“Hey guys, I’m going home. Do you want me to drive you? I still have four seats left and you seem pretty drunk.”

“Paul you’re awesome”, Emma mumbles.

He chuckles, before he leans down to help the two of them up. 

“Can we also take Charlotte?”, Emma asks, “She’s too drunk, I don’t want her doing weird shit, she’s gonna regret tomorrow.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I’ll get her”, she says, quickly disappearing in the corridor.

“Did.. is Ted already gone?”, Henry quietly dares to ask.

“Yes. About an hour ago.”

“Okay.”

They are both quiet for a while, before Paul speaks up again.

“He really likes you, you know?”

“What?”

“He didn’t tell you? He wanted to.”

“Well he told me and then he said he didn’t mean it, so I’m not sure.”

Paul chuckles, confusing Henry. 

“Ted’s never been open about his feelings, but I can assure you one thing. He doesn’t give a shit about school projects.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he never does them.”

“But he’s doing the one with me.”

“Yes, because it’s with you.”

“Oh.”

“Just..think about it. And tell him, if you like him. If you don’t, be honest too, alright?”

“I‘ll try.”

That’s when Emma comes back, dragging a drunk Charlotte. 

“Alright, we can go”, she says. 

—

Henry tries to stumble as quiet as possible, when he manoeuvres himself to the stairs. 

“Henry?” Shit. 

“Yes?”, he whispers back. 

She steps out of the kitchen, holding a cup of tea. 

“Why are you up?”, is all he can think of. 

“Your dad keeps snoring. And it’s not that late, you didn’t stay long.”

“How long was I supposed to stay?”

“Longer than two hours?”

“No, I didn’t want to.”

She chuckles now. 

“Henry are you drunk?”

“What? No..”

“Yes, you are.”

“Are you mad?”

“No, I just didn’t expect it.”

“But you should be mad. I did something bad and illegal.”

“It’s just alcohol.”

“Mom..”

She laughs. 

“Come on, you should drink some water. Did you eat?”

He just shakes his head. 

“Well, drinking on an empty stomach is never good.”

“Thank you for _that_  information.”

He follows her into the kitchen and leans against the counter, while she gets him a glass. 

“What happened?”, she asks. 

“What do you mean?”

“I just don’t feel like you are the kind of person, who drinks without a reason.”

“Yes.. I guess I’m not.”

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

“It‘s just.. nothing.” Maybe it‘s better if she doesn’t know. It‘s not like there’s that much of a chance that Ted and Henry will happen. 

“Okay”, she says and proceeds to fill the glass with water, before giving it to him. 

He hesitates, before saying: “It’s a boy.” 

Maybe talking about it helps. And he’s drunk, that kind of makes him more communicative.

She looks up. “ _Oh?_ ”

“Yeah, no.”

“No?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well..”

“It’s just..”

“I kind of lost track of this conversation.”

“Me too.”

She smiles.  “A boy, huh?”

“Yes.”

“The one that was here a few days ago?”

“Mhmh.” He nods, not daring to look at her now.

“He was nice.”

“Yes, he is.”

“So what’s the matter?”

“I don’t know, he drives me insane.”

She just smiles brightly. 

“What?”

“You’re in love”, she whispers, a little too exited.

“I’m never telling you anything again.”

She just bites her lip, to hide her smile, but he can see it anyway. 

“It’s not like it’s important”, he adds, thinking about how Ted said, he would never like Henry. It’s ridiculous, he said. 

“Why not? It is! The first love is a one-shot. You’ll never experience that again.”

“I’m not even _in love_ , I’m just having a minor crush. It might be over soon.”

“You say that like you caught the flu.”

“Maybe I did.”

“You like him, right?”

“Yes.”

“And I’m not trying to pretend, that I know everything, but if he was just some guy, you wouldn’t be drunk now.”

He hesitates because she’s right but he doesn’t want to say it. 

“Are you hungry?”, she asks now. 

“No.”

“Okay, go to bed and sleep it out then.”

He smiles. “Thanks, Mom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to comment!


	6. Henry’s not a hufflepuff

Needless to say, he feels like shit when he wakes up. It not just the hangover, it‘s absolutely everything.

He just kind of lays there, pitying himself, until his mom comes in.

“Henry?”

He groans quietly for an answer. 

“Are you awake?”

“Yes”, he mumbles into his pillow. 

“How are you feeling?” She sounds definitely amused by this.

“Great.”

“Do you wanna come and eat breakfast?”

“I think I’ll shower first.”

“Okay.”

She ruffles his hair and leaves. 

The next ten minutes consist of him, trying to get himself to slip out of the bed and walk to the bathroom. 

It happens eventually. 

And as he’s standing under the shower, the hot water and the steam slowly waking him up, he remembers everything that happened the day before. 

It started so good. It could have ended good, if it wasn’t for Henry being an absolute knucklehead. 

He curses himself. He could have just said something like “I like you too”, before running after Emma. He could have kissed Ted one last time and he could have told him that. He should have. By now, he’s pretty sure that Ted lied, when he said he doesn’t _like_ Henry. He hopes Ted lied. It does make sense, especially after what Paul told him. 

He’s going to apologise tomorrow in school. And he’s going to tell him that he feels the same, whatever it takes. 

Because he desperately wants to kiss him again, desperately wants to spend more time with him.

He’s normally not the kind of person who enjoys spending a lot of time with people, he’s too introverted for that. But with Ted it’s different, somehow. He likes spending time with him, he’d love to spend all of it with him. 

—

He‘s motivated for school on that monday, because he planned to talk to Ted and he‘ll do it for sure. He‘s nervous but feels courageous enough to go through with it, so it’s going to work. It has to. 

“What the fuck?”, Emma says, when he’s smiling after she opened the door. She looks miserable. Tired and grumpy. “It’s monday Henry. Life is shit, don’t do that with your mouth.”

“I’m sorry. But I have a plan.”

“What plan?” 

“Ted.”

She closes the door, looking up.

“Oh.”

“I’ll talk to him today.”

“Well good luck man.”

He hesitates before asking “Any news?”

“What news? I’ve been sleeping since that fucking party and I’m still tired.”

“About Charlotte?”

“Oh god no.”

“No?”

“No and you know what? I don’t even care anymore.”

“Okay. Are you sure?”

“Fucking sure, yeah.”

“Okay.”

They walk in silence for a while, until Emma speaks up again. 

“What kind of plan? Please tell me you haven’t written a speech or something.”

“No. I’m not sure what exactly I’m going to say, but I’ll tell him that I like him and I’ll apologise somehow.”

“Solid plan.”

“I hope it works.”

Emma looks up, frowning now. They’ve reached the school. 

“Ugh”, she mutters. 

“What?”

Henry quickly follows her gaze, spotting Charlotte. Charlotte with Sam. They are kissing and his hand is on her butt and Emma looks like she’s going to throw up. 

“Are you alright?”, Henry asks, guiding her in a different direction, away from them. 

“Yes, like I said. I don’t give a shit.”

“But you do.”

“He’s just such a scumbag and she deserves better.”

“You?”

“No, better.”

“Come on.”

“I just don’t get it.”

“Me neither.”

Henry tries to look around inconspicuously, looking for Ted obviously. 

“Dude, don’t be so obvious. We have to run into him eventually.”

“I wasn’t obvious.”

She laughs. 

“Yeah, no, absolutely not.”

“What? I wasn’t?”

“You looked around like you’re bleeding out and he’s the ambulance.”

“You are mean.”

“Don’t be such a loser.”

“I’m not”, he says while looking into an open classroom, because maybe Ted’s in there. Emma laughs and grabs his arm to pull him along. 

“Jesus fucking Christ Henry“, she simply mumbles. 

—

Henry keeps his eyes open throughout the whole day and apparently Emma was wrong, because they don‘t run into Ted eventually. He can‘t seem to find him. 

It‘s lunchtime now and Henry really hopes to meet Ted in the cafeteria, but when he steps in, there‘s just Emma, Bill and even Paul, who‘s for some reason sitting at their table. 

Henry sits down next to Emma, who’s aggressively eating her salad. 

“Hey, are you alright?” 

She doesn’t answer, just keeps staring into the distance, keeps chewing angrily. 

“What’s up with her?”, he asks Bill and Paul, who have been talking until he cut them off. 

Paul nods in some kind of direction and when Henry follows his nod, he sees Charlotte and Sam. Of course. 

“Sorry Em”, he says, putting his arm around her, to calm her down a little. It makes her finally look up. 

“I don’t care.”

“Sure you don’t.”

She leans into him a little, showing him that holding her actually does help. She’d never admit that verbally, but she’s really into hugs and being held. He knows that, of course, they’ve known each other forever. 

Henry looks up to Paul and Bill. He wants to ask Paul where Ted is, but they’re talking again and he doesn’t want to cut them off once more. Once was rude enough. They seem to be really into it too, really flirty. Bill is blushing and everything.

So Henry waits, staring at the door and hoping Ted comes in. 

“Did you find Ted?”, Emma asks now.

“No.”

Paul looks up. 

“You were looking for him?”

“Yes. Do you know where he is?”

“No. But we wanted to meet here, actually. I’ve been wondering about it.”

“He didn’t show?”

“Not yet.”

“Oh, okay.”

Paul hesitates. “But he will. I’m sure he will.”

“Yes, sure.”

Henry looks to the door again, just to see Ted step in. His gaze wanders through the room until he spots Henry. Then he just stares for a moment, opening his mouth as to say something. But he doesn’t and even if he did, Henry wouldn’t hear a word. He’s way too far away.

Then Ted just backs out of the door and leaves again. 

Henry frowns. 

“Did you see that?”

“Hm?” Paul looks up, an asking look in his eyes. 

“Ted was here.”

“Huh?” Paul turns around to the door.

“No, he left.”

“That’s weird.”

“It is. Excuse me.”

He gets up, leaving Emma alone. 

“Go get him”, she says, when he hurries to the door. 

He has to run, because Ted’s way too far for him to shout. 

But he does shout when he’s close enough and out of breath. He should probably do more sport. 

“Ted! Wait!” 

Ted stops, but doesn’t turn around. Henry hesitantly puts his hand on Teds shoulder. 

“Hey.”

Ted flinches, but turns around now. He smiles, but it doesn’t look genuine at all. 

“Hi.”

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

“Are you mad?”

Ted chuckles. “ _Mad”_ , he whispers, “No.”

“You seem mad.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Alright. ..Ted, we kissed and-“ “Shhh!” He frantically looks around. 

“Everybody saw it when we played spin-the-bottle?”, Henry whispers now. 

“But that’s not the kiss you meant.”

“No.”

“Don’t yell it around then.” 

“I didn’t!”

“I _had_ to kiss you for that freaking game! Don’t tell people that I did it willingly as well!”

Henry hesitates, stepping back a little. “Wow, you really do think it’s ridiculous to like me, don’t you?”

Ted tilts his head, opening his mouth now, maybe to object, but he doesn’t.

“Understood”, Henry says, “And here I was, ready to apologise for not saying anything.”

“You said enough.”

That’s when Henry snaps. “Why do you have to be so mean now? It’s not like I told you to leave or anything! You didn’t even give me time to react. And I didn’t _mean_ to hurt you _and I’m sorry_ , because that’s what I unwillingly ended up doing. But you’re just being an asshole now!” 

Tears formed in his eyes and he’s pretty sure that Ted notices, as Henry frantically blinks. Because Ted hesitates now, making a step towards Henry. Henry just stumbles back. 

“You know what? Fuck off Ted.”

Henry turns around and leaves. 

Ted doesn’t follow him or hold him back, so maybe this is for the better. They might be better off without each other anyway.

—

Henry’s still mad when he gets home. He feels like shit and it’s Teds fault. But he’s not just mad at Ted, he’s also mad at himself, for being so into him that it made him go completely blind. 

“Hey, how are you?”, his mom asks, when he angrily slams the door. 

“Never been better.”

“Oh no. ..That boy again?”

“He’s not a boy anymore. He’s just someone that I used to like. A ghost from my past if you will.”

“So bad?”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s fine too.”

“I’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay.”

—

It’s about an hour later now. Henry actually does feel a little better. Or maybe just not as mad anymore. He’s sitting on his bed and he’s watching  _Little Shop of Horrors_ on his laptop, when he hears steps coming up the stairs. He figures it’s his mom at first or maybe his dad came home earlier today. 

When someone pushes the door open, it’s neither of them. 

Ted slips into the room, looking up as soon as he closed the door again.

“Hey Henry”, he says. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really bad at giving chapters titles, but I’m particularly proud of this one so please notice it.  
> (It’s because he couldn’t /find/ Ted, get it? This is me, trying to be funny) 
> 
> Feel free to comment! :)


	7. Good God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go!

Henry just stares at Ted and quickly closes his laptop out of reflex, cutting off the tone.

Ted frowns, but somehow starts smiling at the same time ~~and it’s hot~~. 

“Are you watching porn or what?”

“No!“, Henry quickly assures, still confused about what the fuck Ted is doing in his room. “How did you get in here?”

“I broke in.”

Henry frowns. His mom must have let him in. 

“Your mom let me in”, Ted admits. 

Henry pushes the laptop off his lap now and sits up a little, instead of hanging in his pillows like a rag doll on figure skates.

“Okay.”

This is weird, considering the last thing Henry did was angrily telling him  to fuck off. Ted just stands there, looking helpless and awkward and nervous and Henry almost feels bad. 

“Sorry”, Ted quietly says now. It’s barely a whisper and he’s not looking at Henry. 

“What?”, Henry asks. He understood it, but he’s so pissed that he wants a proper apology if this is what Ted is here for. 

Ted looks up. “I’m sorry Henry.”

“Okay.”

He seems so lost. Henry feels bad for being so cold, so he adds a “It’s fine”.

“No”, Ted says, shaking his head. 

He seems to struggle for words for a while until he just settles on staying quiet. 

“Ted?”, Henry asks. 

“I didn’t want to be bi alright?”

“What?”

“I didn’t want this to happen.”

“This?”

“God damnit Henry! I’ve been silently crushing on you for two fucking years.”

Henry wants to say something, but he doesn’t know what, so he ends up staying silent, his jaw dropped. Ted starts talking again. 

“I always told myself that you’re just handsome and probably an asshole, but now you’re so nice to me and I actually enjoy talking to you. And I just.. can’t handle it. I initially planned to ignore it when I crush on boys and just.. choose the straight part of being bi.“

“What straight part? It does not work like that”, Henry says. 

“I _know_ , I still hoped that I could make it work.”

“Why?”

“I’m scared?”

“Of God?” Henry doesn’t believe in God, but maybe Ted does. 

Ted smiles cheerlessly. 

“No, not _God_  ..my mom”, he says, adding the last part quietly. 

“Oh. ..I’m sorry about that.” 

“It’s fine. She’s not at home right now anyway.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise. It’s whatever. I don’t want you to pity me, alright? I’m fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay. ..I’ll be there if you do though.”

Ted smiles, lightly shaking his head. “Thank you. ..but it’s fine.”

“Okay.”

Ted looks anywhere but at Henry, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

“I like your room”, he then says, changing the topic.

“Thank you?” It sounds like a question, even though Henry didn’t mean it to. 

“It’s really.. really _you_.”

“And that’s good?”

“It is, yeah. Definitely.”

Henry’s not sure what exactly is going on right now, but that did sound like a compliment. And Ted looks so cute, standing right there, next to the door, looking anywhere but at Henry, with his face gone all red. Henry’s just about to forgive Ted everything he ever did that hurt him.

“Are you with Emma now?”, Ted asks. 

“What do you mean?”

“Are you, like..together?”

Is he jealous? 

“No?”

“Oh.”

“Why did you think we are?”

“You had your arm..” He makes a gesture, probably to show that Henrys arm was around Emmas waist. 

“Yes.. we’re friends.”

“Okay.”

“I’m gay Ted.”

“Okay.”

“Ted?”

“Mh?” He looks up and his gaze meets Henrys, making the butterflies somewhere in Henrys belly go wild. So wild that he forgets what he was going to ask. Good God. He swallows and quickly lowers his gaze, while he tries to get a clear mind, at least clear enough to properly think. 

Ted. Ted is here. Ted is looking at him. 

Ted is here, right. 

“Why exactly are you here?”, he finally asks.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No?” Or maybe Henry’s just too stupid to figure it out. Especially now that he lost his ability to think. 

“I’m trying to make you forgive me. I wanted to apologise”, Ted says. 

“Well, you did apologise.”

Ted shakes his head. 

“No. Just.. be patient, alright? I’m trying to find the courage to say _everything_  I’ve been preparing.”

He sounds so breathless and nervous. 

“Preparing? Like a speech?” 

“There’s so much I wanna tell you. I’m not good at that.”

He seems to hesitate, before he comes over to Henry, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. 

“Alright, here it goes. I like you Henry and that’s not ridiculous, because you are fucking amazing. I was just drunk and.. hurt by your reaction.”

“I’m sorry for reacting like that.”

“It’s alright, because ..you were right, you know? I didn’t even give you enough time to react. And then I just behaved like a grade-a asshole. I’m especially sorry for earlier. I didn’t freak out because I think liking you is embarrassing or..ridiculous. I’m just not ready to be out. It’s me, not you. _You’re_ great! And I’m not good at being nice, but I’m really trying.. really trying to impress you but it’s so fucking hard, do you know that? I never know what you’re thinking and you’re so much better than me, like why would you like me? You’re well out of my league. _But then_ you actually flirted back and you kissed me, for longer than you had to and I.. I just thought you might be stupid enough to feel the same. But you aren’t and I should have known. You’re not stupid, you’re way too smart and that’s fine. I just wanted to make sure, you-“ “Ted, Ted, _Ted!!_ Stop.” 

Henry scooted over to him and put his hand over his mouth in order to make him stop. Ted reaches for Henrys hand and gently pushes it down, opening his mouth to object yet again. 

Henry talks first.

“Stop talking. Good God!”, he mumbles, “I like you too.” 

He pulls his hand out of Teds and away from his mouth, but Ted stays quiet. He’s just staring at Henry, his jaw dropped all the way to the floor. Henry’s just as surprised as Ted, because there it was. This is it. He finally said it. And he really hopes that he’s not going to regret it.

“Oh god, you do?”, Ted whispers. 

“Of course I do”, Henry says. 

“Of course”, Ted mumbles, sounding ironic. 

“Yes, _of course_.”

He reaches for Teds hand now and takes it in between both of his, gently caressing his soft skin, making Ted smile. Ted turns his head to Henry and suddenly they’re close. They stare at each other for a while, both of them hesitating to kiss the other. 

Then Ted looks away. 

“Are you sure, that you like me? Or did you mean _friendly_? You know, purely platonic?”

“Ted..”

Henry lets go of Teds hand and Ted looks up, nearly panicking. “Shit yes? Platonic?”

Henry just shakes his head and proceeds to wrap his arms around Ted now, pulling him closer into some kind of sideways hug. Ted sinks against him, resting his head on his shoulder. 

“This is nice”, he mumbles. 

Henry can’t help but smile, because yes it is. 

“Don’t be so surprised that I like you Ted.”

“I’m not, I just.. alright, I am.”

“I don’t know what you expected. You kept flirting with me.”

“I don’t know. I kind of expected you telling me to fuck off. But then you didn’t and I thought it’s worth a try.”

“Well it worked. I’m sorry that I didn’t just tell you in that laundry room.”

“Yeah, damn that would have been so romantic.”

Henry chuckles. 

“It kind of was. Your words were really nice and cute and I.. I was just absolutely overwhelmed, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

Ted let’s his fingers run over Henrys shoulder now and ends up playing with the strap of his dungarees. 

“You know what Henry?”

“What?”

“I can’t believe you’re wearing dungarees and you actually manage to make them look cute and hot.”

Henry blushes. Of course he does. “I do?”

“Yeah duh. You’re so fucking handsome, it’s sickening.”

Henry laughs. 

“Don’t laugh, I’m losing my mind”, Ted says, smiling now. 

He straightens up a bit, pushing himself away from Henry, but only far enough to look at him. 

Henry rests his forehead against Teds, maybe out of reflex or maybe because he has fallen in love a little. 

Ted opens his mouth, arguably to say something, but it’s obvious that he won’t. He wouldn’t be able to get a word out, even if he wanted too. Henry feels the same. His throat feels dry, suddenly. There’s just his heart, beating fast and bold right there, in his throat. They move closer. Henry’s eyes fall shut, his lips brush Teds on accident. He smiles lightly, feeling Teds breath on his mouth, Teds hand in his neck, impatiently pulling him closer now. 

Their lips meet in a soft and gentle kiss, leaving the two of them dazed. They kiss again, sighing at the feeling it provides. Henry pulls Ted closer, lightly stroking his back. Their upper bodies nuzzle together. Ted started caressing Henrys jaw with his thumb. Really gently and it’s calming. All of this is. It feels good and right. How could it be wrong? 

Ted smiles when they separate and so does Henry. 

“God damnit, Hidgens“, Ted whispers, his voice sounding unsteady and raspy. He almost seems disorientated, grinning now, while his gaze wanders from Henrys eyes to his lips and back again. “What are you doing to me?”

Henry can’t help but chuckle. He feels giddy as well, light-headed and weak at the knees. 

He kisses Ted once more, before he backs away for good. He shakily takes a deep breath, because he totally just forgot to breath. 

Ted leans against him now, putting his head back on Henrys shoulder. Henry lets himself sink back onto the mattress and into his pillows, still holding Ted close and so they end up laying there in a tight embrace.

He can’t help but notice how well Ted fits into his arms and how comfortable the warmth, that Teds body radiates, makes him feel. 

“What is ‘Ted’ short for?”, he asks after quite some time, because for some reason he ended up thinking about it.

“As if I’m gonna tell you.”

“Come on.”

“No, you’re going to use that against me.”

“I won’t!”

“You will.”

“Yes, probably. Is it Theodore?”

“No.”

“I bet it is.”

Ted laughs. 

“Come on, just say _yes_.” Henry started running his fingers up and down Teds arm and he places a kiss on his head now. 

“Are you trying to seduce me into telling you?”, Ted asks.

Henry smiles. “Of course not.”

“Good it’s not working anyway.”

“Is it?”

“I feel nothing when you do that.”

“You do though?”

“Of course I do. Your presence alone is enough to make me forget my name.”

“Maybe I can help you remember it. Is it Theodore?”

Ted giggles in Henrys neck, lightly shaking his head. 

“It’s probably Thaddeus, right? That’s why you won’t tell me.”

“Oh god no, that would be even worse.”

“Is it-“ Ted cuts him off with a kiss. “No”, he mumbles, after he pulled away again. 

Henry just kind of chases his lips, kissing Ted again. Ted smiles against Henrys lips, but kisses him back with the same affection, the same intensity. 

Ted backs away a little, after a while. 

“What were you watching earlier?”

Henry smiles. “Not porn, Ted.”

“Are you sure? I’ve never seen anyone close a laptop that quick.”

“ _Little Shop of Horrors_ , alright?”

“What’s that?”

“A musical.“

“I’ve never heard of it. Is it good?”

“How long can you stay? We could watch it now. ..if you want to.”

“I’d love to.”

“Yes?”

Ted nods, smiling now. 

Henry lets go of Ted and reaches over him, to pull his laptop back. He opens it again, which is kind of hard, considering Ted still clings to him. 

“I didn’t expect you to be so cuddly”, he says, while he slowly tries to type his password with his left hand. 

“Me neither”, Ted mumbles. 

Henry chuckles, before he wraps his arm around Ted again. “But I like it.”

“Yes.” Ted places a little kiss in his neck and Henrys heartbeat immediately speeds up again. In that exact moment, he’d love to just lay like this forever. 

—

They are about an hour in, when there’s a knock on the door.

“Yes?”, Henry asks, slightly weakening his grip around Ted, in case he wants to back away. He said he’s not ready to be out and Henry’s not sure if his mom counts. But Ted just keeps laying there, seemingly not caring about Henrys mom.

“Oh”, his mom says, after she stepped in.

“Hey”, Henry says, “What’s up?”

“I’m going grocery shopping. Do you need anything?”

“No.”

She smiles. “Alright. I’ll leave you two alone then.”

“Okay.”

She winks and backs out, closing the door. 

Ted chuckles. 

“Did she wink?”

“I guess. ..Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I like your mom.”

“Me too.”

“Where’s Frank-N-Furter by the way?”

“I don’t know. Downstairs somewhere, probably.“

“Okay.”

Henry laughs. “Why do you sound so disappointed?”

“I wanted to see him again, s’all”, Ted mumbles, smiling now.

“Is this the point where you tell me that you came here for him and not for me?”

“I did. Sorry.”

“It’s alright. That happens every time.”

“It does?”

Henry chuckles. “No.”

Ted grins, moving closer to Henry now. He snatches Henrys arm and puts it back around his upper body, where it was, before Henrys mom knocked. 

“Sorry”, Henry says. 

“Yeah, you _should_ be. How dare you?”, Ted mocks.

Henry simply places a kiss on Teds head, before he tugs him closer again.

—

Ted has to leave sometime and when that time comes, Henry escorts him to the door. 

Ted turns to him, before he opens it, looking at him with his cheeky grin. And Henry can’t believe how attractive he thinks that is. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow”, Ted says. 

“Yes.” 

Ted seems to hesitate, before he steps closer and reaches for Henrys face, pulling him into a kiss. 

“Can’t wait”, he says and winks, before he turns around and opens the door to leave. 

Henry just kind of keeps standing there, even after Ted is long gone, smiling like an idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always: feel free to comment!


	8. Another chapter full of Ted and Henry being flirty and infatuated

“And?” 

That’s the first thing Emma asks after she stepped out of the door. Henry doesn’t quite get what she means and therefore he just stares at Emma before he mutters a quiet: “What?”

“Ted visited you yesterday?”

“How do you know?”

“I made him go. He was too scared at first. He can be a real pussy, did you know that?”

Henry chuckles. 

“Well, I didn’t know. But yes, he was at my place yesterday. He apologised.”

“When is the wedding?”

“Good God, Emma.”

“You’re smiling like a freaking dork.”

“We kissed, that’s all.”

“Are you together?”

“I don’t know actually.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll ask him, it’s fine.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

“Careful about what?”

“Him. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I’m fine, Emma. Thank you.”

“Alright.. I’ll kill him if he does though. Hurts you, I mean. You can tell him that.”

“I won’t tell him that.”

“I will then.”

Henry chuckles. 

“Please don’t.”

“Alright, whatever.”

“And he’s not ready to be out, so don’t tell anyone about it alright?”

“Yeah sure.”

—

They arrive at Henry’s locker and Emma leans against the ones next to it.

“How‘s Charlotte?“, Henry asks, while opening it. 

“Ugh I don’t _know_.”

“Alright.”

A piece of paper falls out of his locker and he barely manages to catch it. 

“Huh”, Emma mumbles. 

Henry goes to open it and he can’t contain a grin when he recognises Teds messy handwriting. 

Emma rolls her eyes. “Dork”, she mumbles.

“Hey.” He closes his locker and goes to read it. 

_Meet me behind the school, handsome - Ted_

Henry chuckles. 

“Emma, I’ll-“ “Yes, it’s fine. Leave me alone.”

“Sure?”

She laughs and nods. “Fuck off.”

“Alright.”

He hurries away.

—

Ted is leaning against the wall next to the dumpsters. He starts to smile as soon as he sees Henry. 

Henry chuckles.

“Oh why Ted Richards. You’re such a romantic.”

He has reached Ted and gently pushes him back against the wall, when Ted goes to lean towards Henry. 

“And you’re bossy”, Ted says, already glancing at Henry’s lips.

“Good God, no.”

Henry kisses Ted and Ted contentedly pulls him closer. They just stand like that and kiss for a while, completely forgetting the time. Henry almost forgets the dumpster-smell as well. 

They lightly separate. 

“Hi by the way. How are you?”, Ted mumbles.

“Hey. Good, you?“

“Yeah, fine.”

Ted pulls him closer and kisses his neck, making Henry giggle. Henry can feel Teds teeth lightly hit his skin for a moment, when Ted starts smiling too. 

“You smell nice”, Ted mumbles into his neck. 

Henry makes the mistake to breath in through his nose and all he can smell are the dumpsters again. He laughs, pulling a face. 

“I only smell the trash.”

Ted looks up, smirking. 

“Sorry. But no one comes here willingly.”

“You know, there are other, better options for making out in secret in this school.”

“How do _you_  know?”

Henry blushes when he thinks about Chad.

“Well I just do.”

Ted laughs. “How many guys did you screw in this school Henry?”

“Oh God, none!”

“You sure?”

“Yes. ..I just _kissed_ one, alright? And only one.”

“Who?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Come on.”

“No, I’m pretty sure, he doesn’t want me to.”

“Oh..alright then.”

Ted pulls him into another kiss. 

There‘s the vague and quiet sound of the bell from inside and Henry lightly pulls back. 

“We should get to class”, he says. 

Ted shakes his head. “No.”

“Yes we do.”

“Nerd.”

“Well maybe I am.”

“You are and I love that. It’s adorable.”

Henry blushes. “We could meet after school you know?”

“And do what?” Ted smiles at him in a flirty way and Henry just _has to_  let him down, mostly to see how he‘ll react. 

“I don’t know, we should probably work on _Pride and Prejudice_.”

Teds smile drops. “Ugh, alright. That’s fine”, he says. 

Henry laughs. 

“I was kidding.”

“Oh thank god. What did you mean then?”

“Well, make out of course.”

Ted smiles. “I’d be into that.”

“Oh you would?”

Henry steps closer, before he starts to place gentle kisses on Teds lips, making Ted smile even more. 

“Yes I would”, Ted mumbles. 

“Alright. ..But I mean we should get that project done sometime for real.”

“Yes, we’ll have to set priorities though. Jane‘s gotta wait.“

Henry chuckles. “I’ll see you later then?”

“You bet.”

Henry places a quick goodbye kiss on Teds lips, before he leaves for good. 

—

Emma raises an eyebrow, when he plops onto his seat next to her, barely making it in time.

“Well well Hidgens. Where have we been that long?”

He chuckles. 

“Nowhere.”

“That’s how it’s called now huh?”

Henry can’t stop smiling and that surely gives him away as well. 

“That’s how it’s called”, he repeats quietly. 

She leans closer to him. 

“Are you together now or what?”, she whispers.

He forgot to ask. 

“I forgot to ask.”

“Not much talking huh?”

“Shut up.”

Emma’s almost like his mom by now. His mom had giggled at him, after Ted went home. 

_“Just a minor crush huh?”,_ she had quoted him _. “A ghost from your past.”_

Henry didn’t have a comeback then and neither does he now. 

—

As soon as Henry and Ted stepped into the house and Henry closed the front door, Ted is next to Henry, hugging him and kissing his cheek. Henry giggles, like a child, and turns to him, initially to kiss him. 

“Hey Ted."

They quickly let each other go and look up at Henrys mom. 

Well this is embarrassing.

“Hi”, Ted says. And at the same time, Henry goes: “Mom.”

“Henry”, she says, smiling now. 

“We’ll be upstairs.”

“Working on the project I suppose?”

“Sure.”

“Yeah, leave the door open.”

Henry smiles.

“Will do”, he says, before he pulls Ted to the stairs. 

As soon as they’re in Henrys room, Henry carefully closes the door, as quiet as he possibly can. Ted leans against the wall next to him, obviously amused by how long it takes. 

“Okay”, Henry finally whispers. 

“Okay?”, Ted asks. 

“Come here.” 

Before Ted can obey, Henry is by him, pushing his lips against Teds. 

The kiss lasts longer than he planned and it leaves them breathless and blushing. Ted leans his head against Henrys, laughing quietly. 

“Why would you tell me to come over, when you’re not even going to wait for me to do it?”

“You’re so slow Richards.”

“I’m slow?”

“Yes.”

Henry points at Teds shoes now. 

“Off”, he says, before he slips out of his own. 

They more or less hurried upstairs, because of his mom, so that they completely forgot to get rid of their shoes first. 

“Oh wow”, Ted mumbles, “a piece of meat, that’s what I am to you, huh?”

“Your shoes Ted, oh God.”

He smiles cheekily, kicking his shoes off now. “Duh.”

“Bed?”

“Woah Henry.” Ted obviously does enjoy this. And Henry’s just a blushing mess by now.

“It’s more comfortable! Stop being so horny!”

Ted chuckles and kisses Henry again. He picks him up and Henry wraps his legs around Teds hips. 

It must look awfully ridiculous, since Henry‘s a little taller than Ted, even if it‘s just by a few inches. 

They make it to the bed and Ted does try to put Henry down gently, but he fails and they end up falling roughly onto the mattress. They have to break away from the kiss, because both of them are smiling too much. 

“Sorry”, Henry mumbles. 

“For what? I let you go.”

“I don’t know.”

Ted just looks at him. Lovingly. Longingly, maybe. 

“You’re so adorable, god damnit“, he finally whispers.

“Adorable?”, Henry starts playing with the fabric of Teds shirt, probably out of fazement.

“Mh-hm”, Ted makes, as he starts kissing every inch of Henrys face. 

Henry smiles, closing his eyes now. 

After a while, Ted pulls away a little. 

“So you wanted to work on the project?”, he teases.

“Shut up, no, I didn’t. Don’t you stop.”

“And you said you’re not bossy.”

“I’m really not.”

He pushes Ted off him now, just to lean over him. 

Ted looks up at him, his eyes sparkling and Henry can’t help but admire him. Teds face slowly gets more serious again and he just stares back until he mumbles: “You’re staring.”

Henry bites his lip. “Gazing Ted.”

“Oh well.” The cocky smile is back. 

Henry lets himself sink onto Ted now, instead of leaning over him and Ted quietly goes ‘oof’, but he also immediately wraps his arms around Henry. He turns his head to Henrys, which is resting on his shoulder by now and he kisses his forehead. Then the skin right above his eyebrow and then his temple. 

And all of it is so good and peaceful. Maybe too good. _Too_  peaceful. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go with a whole fluff chapter before it all breaks down again, weeho!  
> This is kind of a fill-in chapter too, I hope you enjoyed it, even though it had no plot whatsoever. 
> 
> Feel free to comment and please don‘t hate me for going a little angsty in the future


	9. Cuh-rying in the storage room

The peace and the tranquility last about a month. It’s like heaven for a month, maybe even better than that.

There are just the two of them, spending as much time together as possible and nothing, no one bothers them. They are also ignoring the rest of the world and pretending that every little problem doesn’t exist at all. And sure, it’s still a secret, but Henry’s okay with that, as long as Ted is feeling comfortable. 

And then Teds mom gets back home and Ted starts acting weird. 

— 

Henry only finds out about it a few days later. Ted‘s been quiet for the past few days and every time Henry asked him about it, he said it‘s nothing. 

He still seemed straight up stressed and pissed and Henry actually started to wonder if it’s his fault, which is why he kind of just tackles Ted at some point. 

He catches him after PE. Ted’s still in his gym clothes when Henry stops him before he can disappear in the locker room.

“Ted?”

“Hey Henry!”, he says cheerfully.

“Can we talk?” 

“Oh.” His smile disappears. “Okay.”

“Come.”

He pulls him into some kind of storage room, carefully closing the door. 

“Are you gonna break up with me?”, Ted immediately asks, fear in his voice. 

“What? No!”

“Thank god.” It’s barely a whisper. “Shit Henry. _‘Can we talk’?_ Why’d you have to say that so seriously?”

“Because it is. Serious, I mean. What’s up with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You are acting quite strange. Did I do something? Are you mad at me?”

Ted looks at him and reaches for his face now, gently caressing his temple. He shakes his head. 

“No”, he says, quietly.

“What is it then? You don’t seem like yourself lately.”

They never talked about this. They never talked about serious things. 

Henry once dared to ask Ted about what happened at the party, about how he ducked away out of reflex, thinking Henry would hurt him for a moment. Ted just said it’s nothing and he doesn’t want to talk about it. He said he’s fine. And Henry accepted that, careful not to intrude Teds privacy. It’s Teds decision to talk, Henry can’t force him. 

And now Ted skirts around it again. 

“I’m sure I smell horrible. I should probably change clothes and-“ “Ted..”

That’s when he starts avoiding Henrys gaze. 

Henry takes a deep breath, before he continues. “You’re not fine and that’s been obvious for a while but you never seemed to want to talk about it so I never made you. But something’s wrong and I can see it and I want to be there for you.”

“Can we not?”, Ted whispers.

Henry nods. “It’s your decision. I just.. want you to know it’s okay. Okay?”

Ted nods, a little too quick. 

“Seriously. It’s not a shame to not be okay. You know that?”

Another quick nod. 

“Hug?”, Henry asks. 

Ted nods one last time, this time it seems more genuine, more reflected too. He steps closer to Henry, almost falling against him, as he wraps his arms around his upper body and buries his head deep in Henrys neck. 

Henry is not sure whether or not Ted is crying at first, but when he starts to shake under his sobs, Henry knows he is, even though Ted is obviously trying to muffle the quiet sounds, by pressing his mouth against Henrys shoulder. 

Henry pulls him closer, holding him as intense as physically possible. He also starts stroking his back, in a sad attempt to calm him down. 

“Sorry”, Ted mutters. 

“No. It’s fine.”

They stand like that for a while. It probably feels longer than it actually is. It‘s probably simply about a minute. 

Henry feels so helpless. He doesn‘t know what to do or to say to make Ted feel better. He doesn‘t even know what is wrong. 

“My mom‘s back”, Ted finally mumbles in his neck. 

“What?”

Ted pulls back a little.

“It just gets too much sometimes. It’s too much I can’t-“, he sobs, cutting himself off. 

“Did she..”

“She’s not a good person, Henry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re not her.”

He runs his hands over his cheeks now in an attempt to make himself look less tear-stained. 

“I’m sorry, I’m fine”, he says now. 

Henry shakes his head. 

“Did she do that to you?”

“Do what to me?”

“You know, when you flinched, when I..” He slightly lifts his hand, trying to gesture what happened at the party. 

Ted shrugs. 

So that’s a yes. 

“Now too?”

“Mostly my dad. But I.. I can’t _bear_  to see him like that, I don’t know what to do. I’d rather have her hit me. I feel so fucking useless.”

“And if you-“ “..go to the police? Do you really think they would believe me? I’m just a 17 year old who doesn’t know shit. And my dad’s an alcoholic. My mom can be really nice, you know? They’d believe her. And then it would get worse.”

Henry starts to chew on his lip, as he thinks about what else you can do in a case like this. But it’s not like he knows about laws or anything. 

“Hey”, Ted says, softly. 

“Huh?”

“It’s fine, I don’t want you to worry.”

“But I _am_ worried. How could I not be?”

“Sorry I told you. And.. pulled you into this, you know?”

“Good God, don’t be sorry! You can’t just keep this to yourself, I can _see_ you suffer.”

Ted hesitates, looking somewhere on the floor now. 

“Hey”, Henry says, before he gets on his tiptoes to place a kiss on Teds forehead. “We’ll find a way.”

Ted smiles, in a sad way and Henry knows he doesn’t believe any of that. But he still nods. 

“Sure.”

He tries to dry his face once more. 

“Can you see I cried? Like would you know if you didn’t know?”, he asks. 

“Wait a second”, Henry mumbles, before he carefully puts the back of his hands against Teds red cheeks, to cool him down a little. 

“Take a breath, love”, he says and Ted does, closing his eyes for a moment. At the same time, he starts to smile. 

“Love?”

“Huh?”

“You called me love. That was so cute.”

“I guess I did.”

Ted reaches for his hands now, pulling them down from his face and interlacing their fingers. 

After a little hesitation, he brings one of them up to his mouth kissing Henrys fingers. Henry can’t help but smile now. 

“Thank you”, Ted then says. 

“What for?”

“Listening?”

“I told you I’d be there.”

“Not everyone keeps promises.”

“I do.”

“I know. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome?”

Ted smiles, pulling Henry closer now. Their foreheads rest together and Henry can barely keep his eyes from falling shut. 

“Is this one of the rooms for making out in secret in this school?”, Ted asks now. 

Henry smiles. “No. At least _I_ never used it for that.”

He‘s been in there once, when he helped a teacher get some basketballs. But not to make out with anyone. 

“What a shame.” Ted’s trying to be cheeky again but his voice is still quiet and his eyes are still kind of red. He’s trying not to show it, but he’s still not his usual self. 

“Why? Do you want to?”

Ted doesn’t answer, instead he pulls Henry into a soft and gentle kiss. Even the kiss feels kind of different. Not bad-different. Just with a little more reserve, not as confident as usual.

All of this makes Henry really mad. Not mad at Ted, good god. Mad at Teds mom. Mad at everyone who made him believe he doesn’t have a chance to get out of this. Maybe mad at society in general. 

“I should go and change”, Ted says now. 

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, this outfit is really cute though.” Henry picks on the fabric of the Teds t-shirt. 

Ted smiles. “I’m cute in every outfit”, he says, sounding just slightly offended and ironic.

“You really are.”

“Keep it in your pants Hidgens.”

“Ugh, shut up.”

Ted laughs quietly and Henry feels almost relieved when he sees that bright smile again, even if it’s just temporary. 

“Do you want to wait? We could go get lunch together”, he suggests now.

Henry nods. 

“I’ll wait.”

“Okay, see you in a minute.”

He presses a quick kiss on his cheek and leaves him alone in there. 

—

Henry steps out of the building, planning on waiting for Ted in front of it. He’s just about to pull out his phone, when he can hear the door fall shut behind him. He turns around, almost surprised at how quick Ted was. But it’s not Ted. 

“Henry. Hi.”

“Hey Chad.”

“Long time no see, huh?”

Why is he even talking to him?

“Well, I did see you.”

“It’s a figure of speech. I saw you too. You’re not a ghost. Or if you were, I would be a medium, because I saw you.”

Maybe Henry’s not a ghost but Chad did ghost him. 

“What do you want Chad?”

“Rude much?”

“You’ve been ignoring me for about a year and now you suddenly talk to me again. I just don’t get it.”

“Am I not allowed to talk to you?”

“You wouldn’t talk to me if there wasn’t anything you desperately wanted to talk about so get it over with and tell me.”

“Are you with Ted now?”

“What?” His heart sinks deep down to the centre of the earth. How does he know? No one is supposed to know. 

“Are you guys a thing?”

“Even if we were - and I am not confirming anything - how would you know?”

“Doesn’t matter. Are you?”

“No?” Oh, he’s such a terrible liar. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, is that a bad MAMD reference in the chapter title?  
> Well, I guess I tried to make it one
> 
> Feel free to comment!!


	10. People know and things are bad

(“No?” Oh, he’s such a terrible liar.)

“So you are.”

“We are not.”

“How come?”

“Where are you even going with this?” He’s just slightly panicking now. 

“Nowhere. Just curious I guess. How is _he_  your type?”

“Don’t _you_ pretend to know my type.”

“I was hotter.”

“What the fuck? Are you jealous?”

“What? Nooo.” He laughs awkwardly, drawing the _‘no’_.

“Fuck off Chad.”

“You’ve changed.”

“You never knew me.”

“You didn’t swear is what I know. I bet you got that from him.”

“I didn’t. Go.”

“You don’t have to be so rude, I just want to talk.”

“ _You_ are being rude Chad. Don’t you dare pretend to be interested in my life, you’re not and you never were. Leave us alone.”

“Us, huh?”

Well shit. “Fuck off.”

That’s when he hears the door fall shut again. They turn around to see Ted, who seems kind of confused. 

“Hey”, he says.

“Hi Ted.” Chad says. 

Ted frowns. 

“I’m leaving you two alone”, Chad then says, patting Henrys shoulder and leaving. 

Both of them watch him leave and then Ted steps closer to Henry. 

“What the fuck?”, he asks.

Henry goes to open his mouth, to give some kind of explanation, but his mind is blank.

“I have _never_ seen you talking to him”, Ted just mumbles. 

“I don’t.. usually.”

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“He’s the guy.”

“What?”

“The one you kissed. In this school, you know. The one.”

Henry shrugs. He doesn’t even care about confirming anything anymore, his head is a chaos by now. 

“He is then. Wow.”

“Ted..”

“Sorry.”

“Ted he knew it.”

“What?”

“Us. He asked me about us! Shit.”

“Us?”

“ _Us_.”

“Oh. How did he-“ 

“I don’t know!”

“Hey! Hey..” Ted reaches for his hand. “He didn’t know for sure right? And he’s the only one. Who is gonna believe him? We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, calm down, alright?”

Henry nods, despite still feeling way too nervous. 

Ted smiles. He’s nervous too, but he’s trying not to show it. 

“Let’s get lunch?”, he asks.

Henry nods. 

Ted takes a quick look around, to make sure no one is watching, before he leans forward and places a quick kiss on Henrys lips. 

“We’ll be fine”, he says again, before he nods in the direction of the cafeteria, “come on.” 

—

They won’t be fine. This is a mess. 

People are staring. 

Henry can feel Teds hand brush his. It could be an accident, but he knows it’s not. Ted is nervous and Henry can see it. He can see it and he can feel it, when Ted brushes his hand, desperate for some sort of safety.

Henry swallows as they make their way towards Emma, Bill and Paul, who are already sitting at one of the tables. Charlotte’s not with them again, she’s with Sam and his friends. 

“Hey guys”, Emma says, when they sit down. 

“Hey”, Henry says. 

Ted doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even smile. Henry would love to pull him in a hug or at least take his hand to make him feel better, but it would probably just deteriorate everything. It would validate what everybody’s thinking. 

They can’t know anything for sure yet. 

He leans closer to Ted for a moment, just a little bit, to whisper: “Are you okay?”

Ted nods. “Fine.”

They barely talk for the rest of the break and then the group separates, because they have different classes. 

—

Emma watches Henry, while they walk through the school corridor. They have the same class now. 

“Are you and Ted okay?”, she asks after a while. 

“Huh?”

“I have never seen you two so pale.”

“People seem to know.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“About us. Ted and me. Chad asked me about us, it was really weird. And now everyone was staring.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m fucking sure”, he snaps. 

“Sorry.” 

She kind of zones out. He’s not sure what she’s thinking about but it makes him feel bad, because he snapped at her. 

“No, I’m sorry”, he quietly says.

“Don’t you be sorry. I’ll find out who told everybody and then I‘ll fight that creep.”

Henry chuckles.

“Thanks.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I think so. I don’t know. I’m worried about Ted.”

“Because he didn’t want people to know?”

“Yes he didn’t. He wasn’t ready. He should have gotten all the time in the world to decide when he’s ready to be out and now someone took that from him. Have you seen him earlier? He looked so done and there was nothing I could do about it. I’m so mad right now.”

“It’s not like there is evidence though right? People can’t know for sure.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe they’ll forget about it by tomorrow.”

“I hope they will.”

She wraps her arm around him as they keep walking to class. 

“We’ll find whoever did this, alright?”

“We will”, he puts his arm around her too, “Thanks, Emma.”

—

He goes down into the kitchen later that evening. He was actually about to go to sleep, but he wanted some water and for some reason, his mom is waiting for him down there. 

As soon as she starts talking, he regrets getting that water. 

“Can we talk?”

“Oh god”, Henry can hear himself whisper. 

Emma was wrong, there is evidence. There must be some sort of video material of the two of them kissing and she saw it and now she’ll want to talk about it. 

“I feel like I have to do this, since you have a boyfriend now”, she says. 

Okay, maybe not video material. Henry was wrong, but this feels even worse. 

“Mom”, he just says, to stop her, but there’s no going back now. She’s doing this. 

He should have stayed upstairs and he should have dehydrated. 

“I want you to know that it’s okay if you guys wanna do it, you’re old enough, you’re responsible enough. I just want you to be safe, alright?”

This is it. This is the sex-talk. And there Henry was, actually thinking he won’t have to go through that. But what did he expect? He knows his mom.

At least it means she cares. It would be fine, actually, if she didn’t chose the exact day that everything between Ted and him seems to start faltering. 

“Mom, I‘m really not in the mood right now.”

She hold up her hand and stops him.

“But you might be in the mood at some point and I want you to be careful. Don‘t make love without a glove.”

He can’t stop himself from frowning.

“I can‘t believe you just chose to say that.”

“I have more.”

“No! Thanks.. thank you, no. I‘m leaving.” He turns to go.

“Henry?”

“Huh?”

“I‘m serious, please be careful.”

“Okay.”

“Promise?”

“Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short fill-in chapter because that’s the kind of terrible writer I am. Enjoy


	11. Ted panics and Emma beats up Sam

Ted doesn’t come to school the next day and when Henry texts him to make sure he’s okay, he doesn’t text back. Henry doesn’t keep on pushing, figuring Ted needs some time alone. 

It does hurt when Ted starts avoiding him the second day. He doesn’t even sit with them at lunch break. Since Paul does sit with them (and he‘s flirting with Bill again), Ted sits alone. 

Henry keeps looking over to him, but he doesn’t seem to care. He has earbuds in and he‘s just silently eating. Sometimes he seems to get carried away and he slightly starts rocking his head to his music and that would be adorable, if Henry wasn‘t mad at him. 

“Told you he’s an asshole”, Emma says. 

Henry looks up. “He’s not. He’s.. scared.”

“It’s not your fault, he doesn’t have the right to treat you like this.”

Henry stays silent, because he agrees a little. Ted doesn’t have the right to avoid him like that, he did nothing wrong. And it hurts, it really hurts. 

He looks up at Ted again. 

“Do you think I should talk to him?”

“Duh.”

“What if he wants to be alone?”

“He could have at least told you that he’s gonna be like that.”

“He could have, yeah.”

Emma opens her mouth again, probably to present another argument, but at the same time something falls to the ground with a loud crash. 

Both of them look up, to see Charlotte and Sam, obviously fighting. A fallen tray caused the crashing noise. 

“Just leave me alone!”, she shouts. It sounds like whining. She’s crying too.

“Charlotte, baby.. come on. It was just one time.”

“One time? Sam, you.. ugh, you-..”, she lets out a sob, and pushes him away. She turns around to leave, but he holds on to her wrist and that’s when Emma gets up next to Henry. 

He gets up too, initially to stop her, but she’s already running towards the fighting couple. 

And she looks so angry that Henry just knows, someone (probably Sam) is going to get hurt.

“Hey! Fucking creep!”, she shouts. Sam turns to her, just to get tackled by her. She’s a lot smaller than him, but apparently stronger than he thought, because he seems way too overwhelmed to properly defend himself. No one helps him though.

Teachers rush in after about a minute to pull them apart. 

Henry can‘t do anything but helplessly watch as they manoeuvre them out of the cafeteria. Emma is still angrily threatening Sam and Sam is bleeding out of his nose.

When Henry looks back at Charlotte,  Charlotte is still standing there, her hand covering her mouth in shock. 

Henry hesitates, because they‘ve never been too close, before he decides on comforting her anyway.

 

“Hey”, he says, as soon as he reached her. 

She flinches, before she looks at him with wide eyes. 

“Did you see that?”

“Of course.”

“Oh god, I hope Emma’s alright.”

“She will be.”

“I just found out that Sam was cheating on me.” 

Henry is not surprised at all. 

“Yes, I heard it.”

“Oh god”, she whispers again. 

She’s still crying. 

Henry just kind of puts his hand on her shoulder. He’s not good at this at all. To his relief, Paul and Bill join them. 

“Hey Char, are you alright?”, Bill asks, while pulling her into a hug. 

“Yes”, she mumbles, “oh god.”

“Shh”, he makes, pulling her closer. 

She’s sobbing into his shoulder now. 

Henry looks at Paul, who looks just as helpless as he feels. 

“We could go to the principals office and you could try to explain before they suspend Emma”, Paul suggests now. 

Charlotte nods. 

Henry knows that it probably won’t work but he nods too. It’s worth a try after all. 

—

They’ve been waiting in front of the principals office for a while now, not allowed to go in. It’s been about ten minutes, when Sam and Emma finally come out. 

Sam smiles when he spots Charlotte. 

“Charlotte”, he says, already coming towards her. 

She shakes her head. 

“No Sam”, she simply says, while she hurries towards Emma. 

She falls into Emmas arms and Emma looks way too surprised for a moment. 

Her gaze hits Henrys. 

And after seemingly overcoming the initial shock, she starts smiling and hugs Charlotte back. 

“Fucking bitch”, Sam mumbles. 

“Hey!”, Henry goes. Now he’s the one basically leaping at Sam. Paul gets a hold of him and pulls him back. 

“It’s not worth it man”, he says, “You’ll get suspended and he’ll never change.”

Henry stops resisting and instead flips Sam off, because Paul is right. 

Sam won’t change. 

Sam flips him back off and turns around to go. 

“Are you alright?”, Henry can hear Charlotte ask. 

He turns his attention back towards the two of them and sees them awkwardly look at each other. Charlotte is holding Emmas face and Emma is just kind of staring at her. She manages a nod and Henry can literally see her panicking in a way she only panics when she’s really into a person. Like really really into someone. 

“We’ll leave you alone”, Henry therefore says, before he starts pulling Bill and Paul away. 

—

They go back to the cafeteria and end up running into Ted, who’s just leaving it. He looks up and his and Henry’s gaze meet. He looks kind of sad. Then he turns away and looks around to see if anyone noticed them looking at each other.

No one’s there though. Except Bill and Paul. 

Henry goes up to him. He can see how Ted hesitates for a moment, how he tenses up. 

“Can we talk?”, Henry asks. 

Ted shrugs lightly. 

“Please”, Henry says. 

“Where?”, Ted asks. 

Henry points at the door of an empty classroom. The closest one. 

Ted nods, before he goes to open it. He holds it open for Henry and Henry steps inside. Ted looks around the still empty corridor once more, before he goes inside too and closes the door. 

“What the fuck Ted?”, Henry immediately starts. 

Ted hesitates. 

“What?”

“Why did you avoid me like that?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just..”

“It’s not my fault, you know. _I_ didn’t tell them.”

“I know, I-“

“Do you know how much that hurts?”

“Sorry.”

“You better be.”

“I panicked, alright?”

“You panicked?”

Ted looks out of the window now, anywhere but at Henry. 

“They know, alright? Three people asked me about us yesterday. And my mom was acting weird when I got home, like weirder than normally. I got scared that she found out or that she will soon.”

Henry hesitates. Ted looks so done, it immediately makes him feel bad for snapping. 

“I get it. It’s okay, you know? It’s just.. you didn’t have to push me away like that. You could have at least told me that you need space.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you want to take a break or-“ “No!”

“Okay.”

“No, I don’t want to loose you too, I’m sorry for avoiding you.”

“What do you mean, too?”

“Everything I thought I knew is slipping away. I’m sorry, I get it if you’re mad.”

“Ted, I’m worried.”

“Don’t be.”

Henry steps closer to Ted and reaches for his hands. 

“You don’t have to do everything alone.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t..” Henry lightly shakes his head. “Don’t apologise so much, it’s fine.”

“Okay.”

“We can stop spending time together in school, if you want to. That’s fine. People won’t get as suspicious that way.”

“You sure?”

“Of course. I’m surely going to miss you but we can meet after school, right?”

Ted smiles, obviously relieved. 

“Yeah we can.”

“Okay.”

He nods. “Just temporarily. I’m gonna be okay with being out at some point, I promise.”

“Good God, please take your time. Don’t rush because of me.”

“I want you to be happy. I’m sure you’re already sick of all this hiding.”

“I don’t mind, seriously. Please take as much time as you need.“

“Okay.”

Henry brings Teds hands up to his lips to place soft kisses on each of them. Ted smiles and pulls Henry into a hug. 

“Is Emma okay?”, he asks. 

“I think so. She’s gonna be. She was with Charlotte earlier“, Henry mumbles in Teds neck, his head resting on Teds shoulder. 

“They’re like..in love, right?”

Henry chuckles and looks at Ted. 

“How do  _you_ know?”

Ted tilts his head, smiling now. 

“Ah come on. Who doesn’t know?”

“I didn’t know people did.”

“It’s kinda obvious.”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“I’m happy for them though. Charlotte deserves better than that scumbag.”

“Everybody deserves better than Sam.”

“That’s true.”

The bell rings and Ted flinches. Suddenly he’s back to his nervous self, not as relaxed and confident anymore. 

“I’ll see you later”, he says, fearfully eyeing the door.

“Yes”, Henry says, stepping away from him. 

Ted gifts a smile and leans forward to push his lips against Henrys cheek, before he hurries to the door. 

—

Emma is smiling, when he finds her after school. She’s waiting for him in front of it, so they can walk home together. 

Henry can’t help but smile too, because clearly something good happened. 

“What happened?”, he asks. 

“I’m suspended for two weeks.”

“What? That’s not good! Why are you smiling?”

“Calm down, _nerd_. Charlotte just skipped her last class for me and we hung out.”

He hesitates when he sees the look on her face. 

“ _Hung out_ , that’s what it’s called?”, he then asks. 

She giggles. He’s pretty sure he’s never seen her giggle like that. 

“She kissed me .. _on the cheek_ , but still.”

“In a romantic way I suppose?”

“I mean, I don’t know? But it was amazing and she’s totally in love with me.” Emma laughs quietly at herself and Henry rolls his eyes, but is laughing too. 

“You got suspended Emma!”, he says. 

“Worth it.”

“Good God.”

“Come on, Sam deserved it.”

“Yes he did.”

“See? Not gonna argue with that.”

She keeps smiling for the rest of their walk home. Henry has never seen her smile that long. She’s normally the grumpy kind of person. But he’s not going to complain, is he? 


	12. A panic attack and two broken hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: panic attack, some self-loathing

Ted doesn’t seem fine. He seems stressed out and not quite there. Henry feels like he’s always thinking about something else, always sad too. 

He seems paranoid. Always observing to see if anyone is around, when they talk. 

—

When Henry walks through the corridor, he can see Ted talking to two girls. He tries to ignore it, because they agreed on not interacting in school, but he can’t help but notice how uncomfortable Ted looks. 

When he walks past them, one of the girls gets a hold of his arm and stops him. He turns around, looking at her. 

“What?”

“Hey Henry.”

“Hi?”

He looks at them and then at Ted, who’s looking like he’s going to lose it soon. 

“Soo”, one of the girls says, “Are you guys a thing?”

“What?”, Henry asks. Mostly because he can’t believe why a girl he’s never talked to before would ask him that. And he can’t believe why she thinks that that’s any of her buisness. 

He can hear Ted sighing and figures they asked him the same thing.

“No?”, he says. 

She laughs and nudges his shoulder like they’re friends. “Ah, come on. Chad told us he saw you guys kissing.”

So it was Chad. 

“You shouldn’t believe everything Chad says.”

“But he-“

“Do you know how rude that is? You can’t just ask people if they’re together. We are not and _if_  we were, it would certainly be none of _your_ fucking business.”

“Sorry I asked.” She finally lets go off his arm. 

“You should be.”

“No need to be so rude!”

“Don’t you two see? You were being rude, good god.”

That’s when he turns around and leaves. 

—

When he steps out of the school, he can see Chad from afar. He’s standing by the trees at the edge of the school grounds and he’s smoking.

Henry rushes towards him, too angry to properly think. 

Chad let’s his cigarette sink when he sees Henry. 

“Hey”, he says cheerfully. 

Henry doesn’t answer and instead angrily shoves him back. 

“Woah what the fuck?”, Chad says, letting the cigarette go out of shock. 

“Fuck you Chad! Fuck you, you..fucking piece of shit.”

“What happened?”

“What happened? You know exactly what happened.”

“I didn’t know it was a secret!”

“You didn’t-..? Of course you did!”

“I just told like two people, it’s no big deal.”

“You out of all people should know exactly how big of a deal it is!”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re in the closet too.”

“I’m not gay!”

Henry sighs. 

„I can‘t do this..“, he mumbles and forces himself to go, before he breaks something. 

„Alright! Alright, hey Henry!” Chad runs after him. “Hey! Wait, alright, maybe I got a little jealous, when I saw you with him in the gym. It made me miss us.”

Henry stops. “Jealous? You have no right to be jealous! There is no, neither has there ever been an ‘us’!”

“Come on there was.”

“Just leave me alone.” Henry starts walking back to the school again. 

“Hey Babe-“

“Chad I swear to god, I’m gonna punch something and it’s gonna be you.”

Chad hesitates. 

“Alright.. You asked for this.”

“Asked for what?”

“I’m going to tell everyone what I saw.”

“Everyone already knows, thanks to you.”

“I’ll show them the photo.”

“You don’t have a photo”, Henry hits back, while desperately hoping he’s right. 

“Alright, I don’t. But Henry-“

“Ugh you disgust me.”

Chad looks at something behind Henry, smiling now. 

“It’s your lover.”

Henry turns around, just to see Ted standing in front of the school door.

“He’s not my lover”, he says, before he turns to go to Ted. 

This time, Chad doesn’t stop him. 

Ted approaches Henry, while angrily eyeing Chad. 

Henry reaches for Teds shirt and pulls him away from Chad, before he can try to fight him or similar. 

“It was him”, Ted mumbles. 

“I know”, Henry says. 

“That fucking-“ “Yes.”

Henry pulls Ted around the corner of the school front, so they have a little more privacy. 

“It was him, he did it”, Ted says again. His voice is shaking.

“Hey! Hey..”, Henry reaches for Teds face in a sad attempt to comfort him. He’s shaking too. His hands are trembling, he’s so angry. 

Ted sobs, breaking into tears now. 

“All of them are asking, I-“ another sob. He breaks down, falling against Henry. Henry lets his hands sink from Teds face and wraps his arms around him instead. 

“I can’t take this, Henry.” His voice sounds weak and rough, like he’s choking on his fear. 

“I know. Breath, Ted.” He starts to caress his back, as he tries to remain calm even though he has the undying need to scream. Ted‘s shaking. Like his whole body. 

“I can’t-“ He‘s gasping for air. 

“Can’t breath?”, Henry asks. 

Ted nods. Henry lets go of him and holds him away on his shoulders. 

“Okay, Hey! Hey, listen to me. I think you’re having a panic attack, but you’re going to be alright, okay? Just focus on me, focus on my voice.”

Ted nods. 

“Breath with me, love, can you do that?”

Another nod. 

“Okay, in..”, he quietly counts to four, “out..”

Ted takes a shaky breath. 

He’s holding onto Henry, clinging to his shirt, so he doesn’t loose his balance. 

“In.. come on, sit down, you’re okay.. and out.”

Henry helps Ted sit down on the ground. They kind of tumble down on the concrete, still holding on to each other. Ted leans against the wall behind him, closing his eyes now, still following Henrys instructions. Henry reaches for Teds hand now and Ted immediately grabs it and holds it tight in his. 

Henry’s not even sure if this is going to help, but he keeps on talking. 

“In..” 1..2..3..4.. “Out.” 1..2..3..4..

He remembers having read somewhere about it. About how you help someone through as panic attack. But what if this isn’t even a panic attack? It’s not like he’s an expert. Maybe he’s doing everything wrong. Maybe he should get a doctor. But it seems to work a little.

Ted’s still crying, but he’s breathing again, even if it’s pretty shaky. 

“I’m here, you’re okay”, Henry says. He feels Teds hand in his. It’s wet. All sweaty and trembling. 

The panic attack only lasts a few minutes, but it feels like forever. 

Ted let’s go off Henrys hand and puts his hand on his forehead instead, leaning into it. Henry takes a deep breath, relieved that this actually worked. 

“Thank you”, Ted mumbles.

Henry finally lets himself relax a little, let’s himself sink completely on the ground now, instead of kneeling in front of Ted like a lamppost. 

“Sorry”, Ted says, while drying his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt. “I’m a mess.”

“Don’t apologise for that.”

“It’s so pathetic.”

“No.”

“And..”, he buries his face in his hands again, rubbing his eyes. “Shit Henry. You’re an angel.”

“What? I’m not.”

Ted looks up. His eyes and cheeks are red and still glistening damp. His whole face is showing his misery. His nose is scrunched while he sniffles and the corners of his mouth are hanging low. “I don’t deserve you at all.”

Henry feels his heart sink a little. It feels heavy, like someone replaced it with a stone or something of similar heaviness. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true! God, you..” 

“Ted seriously don’t do this.”

“I’m not even sure how I managed to get you. You’re my boyfriend even though I treat you like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like you have to hide all over again. You’re out, you’ve left that shit behind you. You were happy, right? And now you’re dating a pussy who’s always crying and afraid of people knowing-“ Henry put his hand over Teds lips, to stop his self-loathing monologue. 

“Stop”, Henry says. 

Ted reaches for his hand and pushes it away. 

“You don’t even _know_  me. We haven’t been together for that long and if you knew me better you‘d see it too.”

Henry opens his mouth again but Ted keeps talking. 

“The longer people know me, the more they hate me. I’ve known myself for too long.” He gets up and Henry quickly follows. 

“No, you are amazing, Ted you-“

_“Don’t you get how much I fucking hate myself?”_ He shouted that part. His eyes are wide open and he just looks like that at Henry, for a few seconds. Henry is not able to react at first, way too taken aback by Teds sudden outburst. He catches himself crying too, realising the tears started coming a few seconds ago.

“And I have a reason for this. This is not some cute self-deprecating fucking humour, I am the worst and I hate it.”

“Ted”, Henry says softly, his voice kinda weak. 

“We should break up, you know?”

“What?”

“You deserve better. I’m just shouting at you while making you hide. You get nothing positive out of this, I don’t even know why you’re still here.”

“Because I care about you! Good God.”

“Don’t then?”

“I can’t just suddenly stop caring.”

“Well maybe you should try your fucking best then.”

“Don’t do this.”

“Come on Henry, don’t you see?”

Henry hesitates. Ted is a wreck. He was so much tougher, before they got together. He had so much more self-confidence. Henry feels bad. Like it’s his fault, all of this is. 

If it wasn’t for him, Ted would still be okay. 

“Okay, let’s break up”, he quietly says. 

Ted’s angry expression falls and he’s just blankly staring at Henry. 

“For real?”

“Yes. It’ll be the best for both of us.”

At least it’s the best thing for Ted. It’ll be in the longer run. 

“Oh..okay.” He nods, putting the expression back on. “I don’t mind.”

“Good, let’s end this then.” Henry tries to rub the tears from his face, but new ones keep coming, because he’s actually doing this. 

“Yeah, we’re done.”

Why are they even fighting? How did _that_  happen? 

Henry nods and turns around to go. 

“Wait Henry“, Ted runs behind him, “Do you really mean it?”

Henry turns back to a tear-stained Ted and his heart breaks all over again. 

“I’m sorry”, Ted says, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“Ted..”

“Sorry I hurt you.”

“You‘re not hurting me, you’re hurting yourself.”

Ted opens his mouth to object, but Henry quickly shakes his head. 

“ _Even_ if it’s just verbally. This is not healthy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mentally.”

Ted smiles nervously, almost confused. “No, I’m fine.”

“Ted.. this relationship is tearing you apart, let’s be honest here.”

“But I.. Henry, don’t.”

“Good God, I like you so much. Which is why it pains me to have to do this. But you deserve to be happy.”

Teds eyes widen. He slightly shakes his head and reaches for Henrys hands. “Don’t.”

Henry’s heart breaks even more. Why does it have to hurt like that? 

Ted reaches for his face, tries to catch his gaze with his big brown eyes. “Henry?”

“Don’t do this Ted. I’m trying to break up with you.”

Ted shakes his head. “No no. No. You’re not.”

“I’m sorry Ted, it’s not your fault, it’s mine. I messed up your life and I’m sorry.”

“I’ll out myself if that’s what you want, I’ll-“ “That’s exactly what I don’t want! Take your time, please just take your time. Good God.”

”Okay, sure, I can do that too.”

”You can do that better without having a boyfriend who makes you feel pressured into doing something you don’t want to do. You keep looking after me. But you shouldn’t, not right now.”

“You never pressured me into anything.”

“Not willingly.”

“Henry, I’m not mad at you or anything. I’m sorry about what I just said, I didn’t mean it.”

“Listen, I get it, I really do. And I can support you as a friend and everything, but I can’t be your boyfriend, not like that.”

“You’re all I have.”

“But that’s not healthy.”

“But-..”

“You can go back to your old life and you’ll be fine without me. You were fine before right? You’ll be better off without me.”

“That’s the stupidest shit you ever said. You’re supposed to be smart.”

“Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

“Henry I swear to god, if you’re really breaking up-..”

“I am!” More and more tears burst out of his eyes, because he doesn’t want to do this. He just feels like he has to. It’s the best for Ted. 

“..You are.”

“Yes.”

Ted nods lightly, seemingly giving up now.

“Alright.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes, it’s fine. I get it.”

“Do you?”

“Ah come on, I deserve this.”

“That’s not why-“ “Don’t object now, I know I do, even if you don’t think so.”

“Ted..”

Both of them are still crying. 

“Ted, you’re.. You need help. You know professional help. Not me, not a 17 year old who doesn’t have an actual clue about mental health issues and panic attacks.”

“I mean.. you did pretty good, a few minutes ago.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“You deserve to be happy and I feel like you can’t be when you’re with me, not right now. You come first, alright?”

“You’re a fucking saint Henry.”

“I’m a realist.”

Ted sniffles, nodding. “Nerd”, he mumbles. 

Henry smiles, even if it’s a crooked, sad smile because his heart is broken now. 

“I care for you and that’s why I’m going to let you go alright? Please let me.”

Ted just kind of nods.

“It’s the best for both of us”, he quietly says. 

Henry nods. 

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I am.”

Henry goes in to hug Ted one last time.

“Goodbye.”

“Bye, Hidgens”, Ted whispers, while pulling him really close for a moment. 

Henry places a little kiss on Teds cheek, before he pushes past him and hurries away, because he’s going to break down soon and he doesn’t want Ted to see that. He tries to be the strong one for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry for this
> 
> Feel free to comment though!


	13. After the break-up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frank-N-Furter (the cat) is kinda my OC and I love him (even though I forgot about him for a few chapters, forgive me Frank)

Henry is still crying when he gets home. Frank-N-Furter comes towards him, while he slips out of his shoes. He stops right in front of Henry and looks up to him, just like he _knows_. Henry sobs quietly, before he leans down to pull him up into his arms. 

“Henry?” 

Shit. She’s going to see him cry and she’s going to be worried. 

“Yes?”, he asks. 

“Are you okay? I swear I could hear you sob.” His mom steps out of the kitchen and her eyes widen when she sees him. A little “Oh”, escapes her lips.

Henry just shakes his head. He’s really not in the mood. 

“I don’t want to talk about it okay?”, he just says. 

She hesitates but nods. “Okay, sure.. I’ll make you a hot chocolate?”

Henry nods lightly, because maybe this will help at least a little. 

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

She disappears and Henry makes his way upstairs, still carrying Frank. 

He puts him down on the bed, before getting rid off his backpack and his jacket. He gets out of his pants and slips under his blanket. Frank-N-Furter settles next to him. 

Henry hugs him and Frank lets him do that for some reason, he patiently lets him cry in his fur. 

His mom knocks gently, before she comes in. He can hear her place the mug on his nightstand. “Thank you”, he mumbles in Franks fur, too weak, maybe even too lazy, to look up. 

“I brought you cookies as well.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually.”

“Okay.”

He can hear her go back to the door and forces himself to look up. She should know. 

“I broke up with him”, he therefore says. 

She turns back around. 

“Ted?”

He nods. 

There’s condolence in her expression, maybe even grief. 

“And I still don’t want to talk about it so don’t ask why. I just wanted you to know”, he quickly adds, before she can say something. 

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Can I do anything else to make you feel better?”

Henry shakes his head. “Thanks.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“You too”, he mumbles, before snuggling back against Frank, who puts his little paw against his arm, slightly digging in his claws for a moment. Henry doesn’t mind, because he’s used to it. He places a soft kiss on Franks head and closes his eyes now. 

— 

He’s woken up by his phone ringing. He realises that Frank’s gone, when he sits up and starts looking for his phone, finally finding it in his backpack. 

It’s Emma. 

“Hello?”, he mumbles, after he managed to accept the call. 

“Did you sleep?”

“Kinda.”

“Oh shit.”

“It’s fine.”

“Alright. What happened?”

“What?”

“Paul just called.”

Oh god. He lets himself sink back in the bed, putting his phone on the speaker now, so he doesn’t have to hold it to his ear. Everything seems so unnecessarily exhausting. 

“Are you okay?”, Emma asks, when he stays silent. 

“Sure.”

“What did he do?”

“Nothing.”

“Sure? He didn’t.. hurt you?”

“Do you want to tell me you told me so?”

“No.” Except she probably does. 

“He’s not a bad guy, Emma.”

“Then why did you break up?”

“It’s not as easy as all that.”

“I don’t have to kill him then?”

“Please don’t. I did this, so he can be happy.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

Henry stays silent. She doesn’t get it. 

“I can come over you know”, she adds. 

“I kinda wanna be alone.”

“Okay.”

He can hear her whisper something to someone else. She’s not alone.

“Who’s with you?”, Henry asks. 

“Just Charlotte.”

“Oh.”

“She said she’s sorry and she will bake you anything you want to, to make you feel better. Her specialty are cupcakes though, so I’d go for that.”

“She doesn’t have to bake me something.” 

“Alright.”

“Emma you didn’t have to call if you guys are having a date.”

“Of course I had to fucking call.”

“So it’s a date?”

“A little. But let’s not talk about that now, you just broke up with Ted.”

“I’m happy for you two”, Henry says. He’s physically not able to experience joy at the moment, but he will be happy for them at some point. They deserve it. 

“Thanks. You sure you’re gonna be okay?”

“Yes. Enjoy that date.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Bye Henry. Make sure you drink enough water and everything.”

“Sure, bye.”

He waits until she hung up, before he pulls the covers over his face, letting himself sink into the depths of his bed. He’d love to just hide forever. Or even better, to just turn back the time. He’d just do the project alone and Ted would be perfectly fine.

Henry sighs. The project. 

They’re still not done and it’s due in two weeks. Looks like he’s gonna do this alone after all. 

He wouldn’t mind, if it was another project. But every single thing about it makes him remember the time he spend with Ted. It wasn’t even a lot of time, it’s not like they’ve been together for years. But it was quality time, time with Ted was always the best, for some reason.

Maybe Ted was right. They haven’t been together that long, it’s not like they know each other inside out. But Henry feels like he knew enough to like Ted more than anyone else. Maybe even love him. 

He shakes his head at the thought. He’ll have to forget about it. He surely will at some point. It wasn’t love yet. 

— 

Ted doesn’t come to school the next day and for the rest of the week. Henry is tempted to just call him or visit him, to make sure he’s okay. To make sure he didn’t make everything worse by breaking up. 

But Paul keeps assuring him that Ted’s fine, he simply has actually gotten sick. Caught the flu, to be more specific.

Henry still has the undeniable urge to go to his place and maybe bring him soup or something. 

But he broke up with him, so Ted can actually get some time for himself, away from Henry. He can’t just keep calling him now, keep visiting. So he doesn’t, even if it feels like the hardest thing to do. 

He’s sitting in the cafeteria instead, between Emma and Charlotte who are together now but desperately try not to show it too much, for Henrys sake and Bill and Paul who have been flirting like that for a while but they still can’t seem to get their shit together. 

— 

Ted’s finally back on monday. It feels to good to see him. Henry doesn’t even have the strength to hide his staring, when he first sees Ted walk through the corridor.

Ted’s wearing a hoody. Which is, again, a little too big and a little too adorable. He has dark circles under his eyes but he seems okay, otherwise. Henry keeps telling himself that the dark circles come from the flu. He’s still not completely fit, probably. He’s holding some kind of folder in his hands. And he’s coming right towards Henry. 

“Hey”, he says. 

“Hey”, Henry whispers. He’s not even sure if Ted heard that or if he just saw him staring at him, lightly opening his mouth for a moment. Either way, he doesn’t seem to care. He just pushes the folder towards him. 

„I gave my best, but I hereby..“, he reaches for Henrys hand and makes him grab the folder, „give you the permission to make some adjustments. I‘m not smart like you, but I don‘t think I completely messed up.“

Henry is too overwhelmed by Ted touching his hand, so all he manages to answer is a: “What?”

“I did the project.”

“Oh.”

“I was sick so I had time. But don’t worry I didn’t do it based on the movie.”

“You read the book?”

“Duh”, he mumbles, smiling nervously and kind of sad. 

Henry can feel the tears forming in his eyes already. What’s your damage man? _You_ broke up with _him_.

“I’d still read through it though, if I were you”, Ted says. 

Henry nods. “Okay, thanks.”

“I’m sorry, but I thought it would be better if we don’t finish that one together.”

Henry nods again. 

He thought that too. But he thought he would be the one doing it alone. He thought Ted wouldn’t care. But he does care, Ted is so caring and Henry suddenly hates himself for breaking up. Maybe they could have found another way. 

He lightly shakes his head. 

This is the best for Ted, he has to stop thinking based on his own wishes. At least for that matter. 

“No?”, Ted mumbles, sounding surprised and Henry slowly realises that he didn’t answer. 

“No! Yes, I mean.. you’re right. Thank you Ted.”

“It‘s fine.”

“Okay.”

They keep standing like that for a while, neither of them knows what they’re supposed to say but neither of them wants to walk away either. 

Henry sees Ted start looking around and when he does too, he notices people started staring. 

“I should head to class”, he therefore says. 

Ted nods. “Me too.”

“Okay. ..Ted?” 

Ted already started turning away and quickly looks back up now. 

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

Ted nods. “Sure.”

“Okay.”

Ted presents a little smile, before he turns around and leaves for good. 

“You made a mistake”, Emma says, who’s suddenly behind him. 

Henry flinches and almost hits her with the folder, reflex like. 

“Good God”, he mumbles, as he lets the folder sink. 

“Come on dude, admit it.”

“No, he’s better off without me.”

She rolls her eyes and sighs. 

“Whatever.”

He knows he’s right. At least he’s pretty sure he is. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna call this chapter “Henry cries and Ted has the flu but he probably cries too” but then I realised that that’s the worst title anyone has ever given a chapter


	14. Henry might have made a mistake

Henry might have made a mistake. 

Ted is still a wreck, breaking up with him didn‘t help at all. 

_Maybe he just needs more time_ , Henry thinks, while he stares out of the window of the cafeteria, watching Ted. Ted is alone and he‘s just kind of sitting on one of the benches. 

He doesn’t do anything, besides listening to music and staring at the ground. He looks sad. Broken, maybe. He looks lost. Like he doesn’t even know what he’s doing there himself. 

Henry quickly finishes his sandwich, before he gets up. 

“You think that’s a good idea?”, Emma asks. Apparently she knows exactly what he wants to do. 

“Look at him! ..I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Of course you do. Maybe kiss his little aches and pains away too.”

“Ugh shut up.”

“Don’t hate me.”

“I always do.”

Emma laughs and flips him off while he walks towards the door, towards Ted. 

— 

Ted doesn’t notice him at first. He’s too focused on the ground or maybe the music. 

“Hey”, Henry says. 

Ted doesn’t react. 

Henry lightly taps his shoulder and Ted flinches. He looks up at Henry and quickly pulls the earbuds out of his ears. 

“What’s up?”, he asks, obviously trying to sound relaxed and cool. 

“How are you?”

“Great.” 

That would be great if his voice wasn’t oozing that much irony.

“I’m sorry Ted.”

“For what?”

Henry takes a quick look around - no one’s there - before he sits down next to Ted. 

“I just broke up with you without letting you have a say in it.”

“That’s how people usually break up. One sided.”

“Do they?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m still here, if you want to talk, you know.”

Ted shrugs. 

So he wants to talk but he doesn’t want to admit it. 

“Didn’t you break up because you don’t want this anymore?”, he finally asks. 

“What?”

Ted just kind of gestures at himself and Henry almost starts to cry again. He’s doing his best not to. 

“No”, he says, firmly. 

“‘Kay”, Ted whispers. 

“You still don’t get it, do you? You just accepted it because you think you deserve this.”

Ted shrugs again. 

They might not have been together for long but Henry knows that Ted shrugging usually means ‘yes, kinda’. 

“Ted, I-“ “You don’t have to explain.”

“What if I want to?”

“It hurts to talk to you, don’t you get it?”

“Sorry.”

Ted rubs his eyes now and sighs. 

“I’m mad at you”, he says.

It shouldn’t be surprising, but for Henry it kind of is. Because he might be smart, but not when it comes to interacting with people.

“Oh”, he says. 

“You broke up and said I need help but no one’s there to help.”

Henry stays silent. He kinda didn’t think this through but he won’t admit that now. 

“I don’t know what you expected. Did you think I’d just suddenly get my shit together? Now that I’m all on my own? Well, surprise, I don’t know how and I’m not even sure what for.”

“For yourself.”

“It’s exhausting.”

“Well I’m sorry then.”

“No, I didn’t mean it, like.. See, I get it, if it got too much for you. I’m not trying to guilt you into coming back, but you know, you could have at least told me the truth.”

“But it was the truth.”

“You weren’t secretly sick of me being like this?”

“No.”

“Come on.”

“No, I just though I made you like this.”

“I was already shit before you came.”

“I see.”

“Sorry, it’s not fair, I shouldn’t be mad at you.”

“Ted I broke up with you. You can be mad.”

“Why are you always so nice? Shit Henry.”

“Are you mad because I’m nice?”

“Yes! Because you’re so fucking nice, I can’t even be mad!”

“I can try to be an asshole, if that’s-“

“Oh, don’t bother and change for _me_.”

“Now _you’re_ just being an asshole.”

“Maybe I am.”

“Are we actually fighting?”

“I guess.”

Both of them are silent for a while.

“You weren’t fine before me?”, Henry quietly asks. 

“Nah.”

Of course not. How stupid he was. How self-centred. “I’m sorry.”

“You were still right.. about taking a break. Breaking up. I mean, I hate to say it but I guess you were.”

“Was I?”

“It kinda stressed me out. I liked you too much and I pressured myself into stuff I wouldn’t do if it wasn’t for you.”

Henry’s kind of relieved, because that means he didn’t make a mistake. It means he didn’t make it worse. 

“And I kept.. struggling? I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“Who you are?”

“I can‘t recognise myself. I look in the mirror and I hate what I see. I feel like everything that’s shitty in my life is my fault.”

Henry tries to blink the tears away. Ted buries his face in his hands now, let’s his fingers run through his hair.

“Shit I smoked weed yesterday”, he then mumbles, somehow managing to make the whole situation a little less tense. 

Henry frowns. “What?”

“I didn’t even like it.”

“Why?”

“It tasted weird.”

“No I mean why’d you try it?”

“Because I’m in an existential crisis Henry”, Ted says in a mocking tone, rolling his eyes. 

Henry smiles now and Ted looks up. He smiles too but he lightly shakes his head at the same time. 

“Don’t smile at me like that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too fucking cute.”

Henry blushes. 

“Sorry then.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Whose is it?”

“Your ancestors? Your parents maybe? Tell them I’m mad at them too.”

“Alright.”

Henry takes a quick look at his watch. 

“I have to go to class, but..”, he hesitates. He shouldn’t do this. “Do you want to.. talk later?“ 

Ted seems surprised but eventually shakes his head. 

“Thanks, but i can‘t.”

“You could walk with me now, if you-“ “No, I don’t have a class now ..nowhere to walk.”

Henry hesitates. “What are you doing here then?”

“Don’t wanna go home.”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine, it’s just.. annoying.”

“Okay.”

“Not annoying, stressful, I don’t know. The more time I spent with my mom, the more I feel like shit and I’d rather not feel that way.” 

“I could skip classes now and stay if you want me to. So you don’t have to be alone.” 

Ted chuckles joylessly while staring at his hands. 

“You’d miss biology for me?”

“Yes, Mrs Jones won’t be mad at me.“

“Nerd”, Ted mocks him. 

Henry smiles. 

Ted looks up at him and shakes his head again. “It’s fine, go to class.”

“Are you sure?”

“You know, what I’m actually trying to say is, I think I gotta be alone for a while. I want to be alone. I need some time away from..”, he hesitates, before mumbling a quiet “..you.”

“Oh”, is all Henry manages to answer.

“Ugh that was rude. I meant I don’t want to talk right now.”

“It’s fine.” No, it hurt like hell, but he’s still the one who broke up so he doesn’t feel like he has the right to complain.

“It still hurts to see you, you know.“ 

“I‘m sorry.”

“It‘s fine.“

“I’ll see you around I guess.”

“Sure.”

Henry gets up. 

“Are you going to okay?”

“Eventually, yeah.”

“Okay, see you.”

Ted just kind of tries to smile (it looks a little too joyless), before he puts the earbuds back in and Henry forces himself to leave. 


	15. It’s Henry’s birthday

It’s Henrys birthday. He’s 18 now. 

He’s on his way to school, with Emma. 

She interlocked her arm with his and she keeps reminding him that he’s 18 now, an _adult_. She’s a little too excited. 

“What are you gonna do today? The annual dinner with your parents or what?”

He smiles. 

“Obviously.”

Henry’s never been the kind of guy to celebrate his birthday with a party and Emma mocks him for that every year. He always goes for dinner with his parents, after school. It’s special because his dad comes home early, just for that. Just for eating dinner with him and his mom. And Henry gets to pick a restaurant. Usually it ends up being indian food because he loves that. 

And then, a few days later on the weekend, he usually celebrates with his friends (Most times just Emma, sometimes Bill and Charlotte will join) in some kind of sleepover and a movie marathon. Who needs a party anyways?

—

After first period, Henry is standing in the corridor with Emma and Charlotte, who apparently don’t give a fuck about annoying people with too much PDA. Henry’s just kind of reading a book which he carries around every day in case he finds himself in a situation like this. So he doesn’t have to wait awkwardly while Emma and Charlotte flirt and giggle and occasionally kiss.

The book is also a good cover for him to casually look up and discreetly stare at Ted every now and then. He should really stop that habit. 

He broke up with him. He should stop being to pathetically infatuated every time he sees him on the corridor. 

Ted said he needs time for himself and Henry respects that, so he’s not going to talk to him anymore (unless Ted comes to talk to him first). 

He forces himself to look back at the pages of his book for a while. He can barely concentrate on reading, because he keeps thinking about something else (Ted obviously. Ted Ted Ted. He’d murder his brain if he could do that without killing himself in the process as well). 

When he looks up again, it’s just in time to see Ted punching Chad. 

Chad’s punching back immediately and Henry lets his book fall to the ground. Charlotte and Emma look up to him and Emma frowns. 

“Are you okay Henry?”

Henry doesn’t even pick it up, he just lets his backpack fall and runs into the fight. 

Apparently love does indeed make people stupid. 

Henry would have never participated in a fight a few months ago. But now there’s the sudden urge to protect Ted and also his anger towards Chad.

He gets a hold of Ted and pulls him away from Chad, pushing himself in front of Ted to protect him in some kind of way. It’s not like he has thought this through, it’s not like he has some kind of plan. 

“Ugh fuck you Henry, he punched me first”, Chad says, blood dripping from his lip. 

“I bet he had a good reason for that.”

“I did”, Ted says behind him. 

Chad makes a step towards them and Henry moves his arms up to push Ted further away from him. 

People started gathering around them or at least they stopped to watch and Henry is slowly getting painfully aware of that. Apparently Chad got aware of that too, because he’s smiling now. 

“Protecting your boyfriend, Hidgens? You guys are really fucking cute.“

Henry notices Ted shifting behind him and before he knows it, he’s diving towards Chad, punching him in the face just like Ted did earlier. 

“Henry!” Emma is next to him now, quickly pulling him away. “Woah shit”, she just says. 

Henry slowly stretches his fingers, then he makes a fist and opens it again, because it hurts like hell and for some reason he wasn’t prepared for that at all. 

Chad looks up now. He’s going all in to run towards Henry, but before he can reach him, a teacher steps in and pulls him back. 

“Principals office! All of you.”

—

They get a warning, not a suspension like Emma did. The reason is that all of them were involved even though that doesn’t make any sense, in Henrys opinion. He was actually kind of already expecting to be suspended on his birthday. 

When they get out of the principals office, Chad storms away. Emma and Charlotte aren’t waiting in front of it anymore and Henry figures they went to class. 

He ends up standing there next to Ted, both of them awkwardly staring at the floor. 

“What did he do?”, Henry finally dares to ask. 

He can feel Ted looking at him. 

“He called me, uhm.. a..”, he stops talking, letting his gaze drop  somewhere else now and Henry can already imagine what Chad called him. 

“You don’t have to say it”, he therefore says. 

“Something homophobic”, Ted just finishes. 

“I wish I had hit him harder.” 

“You did hit him pretty hard.” 

“Did I?” 

Ted smiles lightly, nodding. 

He reaches for Henrys hand now, carefully pulling it up and examining his bruised knuckles. 

“Look at you going all rogue.”

“He deserved it.”

“He did.” He gently lets his thumb wander over Henrys fingers, before he seems to realise what he’s doing and he lets go of it. 

“Make sure to cool it”, he says. 

Henry catches a glimpse of Teds hand, also bruised. He nods. “You too.”

“Yeah, hey Henry?”

“Mh?”, he looks up into Teds eyes, softly staring back at him. 

“Happy Birthday, by the way.”

Henry can’t help but smile, because Ted remembered. He bites his lip to stop himself. “Thanks.” 

Ted just lightly shakes his head. 

“I’m sorry all of this happened on your birthday.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s not?”

“No.”

“So you weren’t staring and that’s why you were so quick to step in?”

Henry blushes. “What?” He laughs nervously. Is Ted flirting with him? He can’t be. 

“Henry, I hate to say this but you’re not discreet at all.” He hesitates before adding: “I know this because I was staring too.”

“Oh.”

“You’re blushing.”

“Stop”, Henry just whispers. 

“Sorry.”

“Are you really flirting with me?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“No I mean.. you’re not mad at me anymore?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“I’m still in ..I-“ He stops, lightly shaking his head and catching himself. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, do you really think I can be mad at you for more than a day?”

“Yes?”

“No I can’t.”

Henry reaches for Teds hand again, just to hold it. 

“Ted?”

“Yeah.”

Ted looks into his eyes and Henry forgets how talking works. 

Ted seems to notice and chuckles now. He brings his hand (the one Henry’s not holding) up to Henrys cheek and Henry feels like his heart is going to explode. 

Ted leans forward, not to kiss Henrys lips but to kiss Henrys forehead and that’s enough to make him realise how much he misses having him as a boyfriend. 

“I should head home”, Ted says. 

“Me too.”

The principal sent them home for the rest of the day. Henry is not sure how that’s a punishment but apparently it is. 

Ted let’s go of him and Henry quickly lets go of Teds hand as well. 

“See you around, Hidgens.”

“Yeah.”

“Again, happy birthday.” He smiles. “Enjoy it, you’re 18 now.”

Henry catches himself thinking what would be if Ted and him were still together. Maybe Ted would join them for dinner after school, maybe he could meet his parents for real. His mom already knows him, but just from meeting him in the corridor, before Henry pulled him along, up the stairs. 

“Thanks.”

Ted winks and Henry is not sure why exactly he _had_  to do that, because he surely can’t handle it. 

Then Ted leaves and after about a minute of standing there and replaying that wink in his head like he’s a broken record, Henry leaves too. 

—

“You punched someone?”

His mom looks at him in disbelief. She came home from work a few minutes ago and didn’t expect him to be there which is why he had to explain. 

“He deserved it.”

“No one deserves that.”

“Mom he called Ted.. he said something homophobic to Ted.”

She hesitates, then she nods lightly. 

“Alright, he deserved it a little.”

“A little?”

“He deserved it. God, Henry, I don’t even know how I’m supposed to react to that.”

“Me neither.”

“I’m not used to this kind of behaviour from you. ..and it’s your birthday.”

Henry shrugs lightly. 

“Let’s wait on your dad?”, she asks. 

“Okay.”

“Come on, let’s cool your hand.” She nods into the direction of the kitchen before she goes there. 

Henry follows, kind of relieved that she’s not too mad at him. 

She looks for a cold pack in the fridge until she finds one. 

“How much does it hurt?”, she asks, when she comes back to him, wrapping it in a cloth. 

“A lot.”

“But it’s not broken is it?”

She puts the pack in the cloth against his knuckles and he flinches a little, because the sudden contact did hurt a lot. 

“No. I mean I don’t think so. This was my first time, I don’t know how much that’s supposed to hurt.”

“I don’t think you broke something.”

“Okay.”

“Is Ted okay?”

“I think so.”

She hesitates, before she asks: “Are you two..? You know?”

“Back together? No.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I’ll still defend him.“

“Sure.”

“I could not just do nothing.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Mom, I swear to god.”

“I didn’t even say anything.”

“But you thought it. You think I’m still in lo-“ He cuts himself off, slowly realising what he was going to say. 

She smiles. She doesn’t look up to his relief and instead stays focused on his hand. She still asks though. 

“You were in love with him?” 

“What? _No_ I did not say that.”

She bites her lip and stays quiet, still smiling a little. 

Henry stares at his hand too, so he has something to look at. 

Was he in love with Ted? _Is_ he? 

Just thinking about him, makes his heart excitedly pound against his ribcage and gives his cheeks a warm blush. He starts chewing on his lip. 

_Love_ is a strong word but for some reason it doesn’t even feel strong enough to describe what he feels for Ted. Not to be dramatic but Henry would die for him. He’s not sure if that’s healthy but he couldn’t care less. 

Good god, he wants him back so bad. 

But he‘s not sure if Ted still wants to be with him too. If Ted still likes him _like that._ He did agree to the break up after all. He said it was the right thing. 

Henry can’t just come creeping back now. 

“Can you hold that?”, his mom asks, and he nearly flinches out of his thoughts. 

“Huh?”

She holds the cold pack towards him. 

“Yes”, he says, reaching for it and putting it back against his knuckles. 

She turns away and goes for her bag. 

“Mom?” 

“Yes?”

She doesn’t look up and instead keeps rifling through her bag. 

“What if I did?”

“What if you did what? Loved him?”

“Yes?!”

She chuckles, finally pulling her lipstick out of the bag. 

“Would that be so bad? He’s nice, I wouldn’t mind him as my son-in-law.”

“Wait we’re not even close to being _there_  yet!”

“I mean I sure hope so. You’re 18.”

“It’s just.. _I_ broke up with _him_.”

“I know.“

“I can’t just go back and be like: Hey I think I..“ He hesitates before whispering the last part: “.. _love_ you.”

“I’m not going to tell you what you can do Henry.”

“So I can?”

She sighs.

“This is your life, honey.”

“You’re no help.”

“I can’t decide something like this _for_ you. No one can.”

“I know. I get it.”

“Good.”

She goes for her bag again, pulling out a little mirror. She’s still holding the lipstick and she’s putting it on now. Dark red, almost going into a brown. That’s his mom, wearing the same lipstick since she started wearing lipstick. She knows it suits her and it does. Henry loves it. 

He can hear his dad unlocking the front door now. 

“Where’s the birthday boy?”

Henry chuckles. He’s not eight anymore but his dad loves to pretend he is. 

“Kitchen”, his mom shouts back. 

And there his dad is, running into the kitchen a little too excited, making Henry laugh. 

Henry puts the cold pack down before he’s being pulled into a hug. 

“Happy Birthday”, his dad says. 

“Thanks”, Henry mumbles into his shoulder. Henry’s tall but his dad is even taller. 

“What happened to your hand?”, his dad asks, as soon as they parted again. 

Before Henry can answer, his mom jumps in. 

“Henry got into a fight in school.”

“Woah!” His dad laughs. “For real?”

“Yes”, Henry admits. 

“I don’t even know how to react.” He looks up to Henrys mother, kind of helpless. 

“Me neither!”, she says. 

“He was being homophobic”, Henry defends himself. 

“Towards you?”

“Well ..no.” Henry frowns, wondering if his dad knows he‘s gay. Maybe he does, just like his mom did. Or she told him.

“Anyways. I bet he deserved it.”

“He did!”

“What did he do exactly?”

“He said something bad to my- ..a friend.” Henry never told him about Ted and he thinks neither did his mom. 

His dad looks back at his mom. 

“Are we going to do something?”

“I don’t know?”

“Grounding him feels like overreacting.”

“I know right?”

Henry sighs, while they keep arguing. 

“I mean, I get it. I would have punched that guy too.”

“Don’t encourage violent behaviour now!”

“Mom I won’t punch anyone again. It’s not like I enjoyed it!”, Henry chimes in. 

“A warning maybe?”, his dad suggests. 

His mom shrugs. 

“Sounds alright to me.”

“We’re still going for food though right?”

“Yes, of course. I’m hungry”, she says. 

“Alright good, me too. Henry?”

“Yes I heard everything”, Henry says.

“Don’t punch people, words are stronger than your fist will ever be.”

Henry frowns but nods. 

“Okay. Yes.”

“Good.”

“Now that we’ve settled this.. Dinner?”, his Mom asks.

His dad nods. “Henry you get to pick.”

They’re going for Indian food, obviously. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment!
> 
> Next chapter is gonna be more Ted and Henry (like Ted and Henry only) (actually I’m not done yet so I can’t promise anything) (but still)


	16. Platonic hand-holding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: implied physical abuse

Ted looks bad the next time Henry sees him. 

It‘s the next day and he‘s too late for school, kind of just stumbling into class, when Henry is about to hand in their project (the Jane Austen one). 

Chad had already given him a blue-ish eye, but this is so much worse. 

Henry stops and stares, still standing in front of the teachers desk, holding the project folder, too shocked to be able to move. 

Teds lip is kind of swollen and it‘s obvious that he tried to hide it. It must have looked so much worse yesterday or whenever this happened. There‘s a scratch above his eyebrow and his eye looks more swollen than it did the last time Henry saw him. 

He doesn’t make eye-contact with anyone and instead just kind of hurries over to his chair. Henry can’t help but notice that he‘s limping a little. He seems to try and hide that one too. 

“Henry?”, his teacher asks, reminding him what he was about to do. 

“Yes, sorry.” He quickly hands her the folder. “This is Ted and me.”

She smiles. “Thank you.”

He walks back to his place. 

He turns around lightly, as soon as he’s sitting again. Ted laid down on his table and buried his face in his arms. 

He lays like that for the rest of first period and Henry is pretty sure that he fell asleep at some point. 

He’s still laying there when everybody starts leaving. 

“Henry can you wake him up?”, his teacher asks. 

Henry nods and she leaves. 

He shoulders his backpack and walks over to Ted. 

“Ted?”

No reaction. Henry kneels next to him and reaches for his arm, gently touching him now. 

“Ted wake up, class is over.”

“Hmn”, he just makes and Henry is kind of relieved to get at least some sign of life. 

“Are you okay?”, he asks, even though it’s obvious that Ted is probably not.

Ted sits up a little and rubs his eyes. He’s yawning too and it‘s cute. 

“Ted?”

“Yeah, fine.” He gets up and reaches for his backpack. “Thanks for waking me up.” 

He’s already going for the door now. 

“Ted wait.”

He stops, but doesn’t turn around. 

Henry walks over to and around him, so he’s standing in front of him. 

Ted’s not looking up. 

“Ted?” 

“What?” He seems annoyed, for some reason.

Henry hesitates. 

Ted sighs. “Come on, this is embarrassing enough, just get it over with.” 

“Embarrassing?” 

Ted nods, lightly rolling his eyes. “Oh no, Ted Richards got beaten up, let’s pity him”, he mumbles in a mocking tone. 

“No I didn’t mean it like that at all. Just..are you okay? Are you in pain?”, Henry asks. 

Ted hesitates, before he nods. “Yeah.” 

“Which one?” 

“Pain.”

“I have painkillers if you want one.”

Ted frowns. “Why?”

“For Emma actually.”

He’s looking even more confused, so Henry decides to explain. 

“She always forgets to bring them and she’s usually in a lot of pain when she’s on her period. I’m a good friend okay?”

Ted smiles now. “Damn, you really are.”

“Do you want one?”

He nods. “Please.”

Henry sets his backpack on the table next to him and starts rifling through it. 

“I told my mom I’m bi”, Ted says. 

Henry stops and looks up. 

“What?”, he mutters.

“I didn’t plan it or anything. We just got into a fight and she started taking it out on my dad and I wanted her to stop so I said something that would attract her attention.”

“Shit Ted, are you okay?” 

Henry lets go of his backpack now and is back at Ted, carefully examining his face, before reaching for his arm. 

“I’m okay”, Ted says, lightly pulling away. 

“Are you sure? You were limping earlier.”

“That wasn’t her. I tripped when I tried to get away. I must have pulled a muscle or something.”

Henry nods, before reaching for Teds shirt. He doesn’t even think about it, he just wants to see if there are more bruises. 

Ted gets a hold of Henrys hand and pushes him away a little, before he can pull it up. He’s laughing quietly. 

“Jesus Henry, we’re still in public.”

Henry blushes. 

“What? I didn’t.. wha-.. why, I just-“, he fumbles with his words, blushing even more. 

“You’re so goddamn cute”, Ted comments, looking at him now. 

Henry just stares at him, not fully functioning anymore, before he quickly turns away, back to his backpack, finally finding the painkillers he’s been looking for earlier. He can still feel Teds gaze in his neck and he barely dares to look up again, because Ted will see what a mess he made out of him just by complimenting him like that. 

“Here you go”, he says, pushing the tablet into his hand. 

“Thank you.”

“Do you need water?”

“No.”

He just swallows it like that and Henry stares at him in disbelief, making him laugh once again. 

Henry can feel his heart pounding in his chest. 

He loves that laugh. 

He loves Ted. 

“Do you wanna skip the rest of the day and go to the beach?”, he hears himself ask. 

“What?”

“Do you wanna skip and go to the beach?”, he repeats. 

Ted smiles his crooked smile. 

“Damn Henry, you _are_  going rogue huh?”

“Maybe.” He’s really not. 

“Hot.”

“Ted!” Good god, he’s making him nervous. 

“I’m into it”, he just says. 

“Into bad guys?”, Henry asks, while desperately hoping Ted is gonna say no. 

Ted shakes his head. 

“No, I’m into nerds who try to be bad but they are really not.”

Henry chuckles. 

Ted steps closer to him now, his hand sneaking into Henrys neck. 

“Seriously Henry, I like you because you’re the nicest person I ever met and I don’t know how but you always manage to make me feel accepted and.. and safe.” 

Henry lifts his hand to rest it against Teds chest. He can see Teds gaze drop to his lips before he quickly looks back up into his eyes. Henry catches himself doing the same. 

“Ted? I..”, he hesitates. _I love you_ , he thinks, still stumbling over the words in his head. 

The door swings open and they stumble apart. 

“Whoops sorry”, the girl says, giggling. 

Then she looks at them for real and her eyes widen. “Oh damn it’s you guys.”

Henry frowns. 

She holds up her arms. 

“Not gonna say anything! I promise! Sorry again.” Then she disappears. 

They’re quiet afterwards. 

“Beach?”, Ted finally asks and Henry nods. 

“Let’s go.”

— 

They walk in silence at first. 

It’s about twenty minutes to the beach but they walk a little further than that, not exactly keen on going to the most crowded part. 

It’s still forenoon and it’s not crowded yet but they still walk along, just to make sure they don’t accidentally meet someone they know. And it’s nice to just walk along the beach for a while. Almost romantic. It‘s probably the most romantic thing they ever did. 

Henry keeps reminding himself that they’re still just friends or something like that. People who know each other and are not romantically involved at all. 

Their hands keep bumping into each other and it could be an accident but Henry has to admit that he just does it on purpose at some point (and maybe so does Ted). It‘s the closest they‘ll get to holding hands anyway. 

It goes on like that for about ten minutes. 

Henry takes a deep breath, not really able to hold himself back anymore. The next time Teds hand bumps into his, he just takes it, interlocking their fingers. 

He can see Ted smile in his peripheral vision and he secretly prays that he chooses not to comment on that, because he’d just make Henry flustered again. But he obviously chooses to say something, because he’s Ted. 

“Oh why Henry Hidgens. That was a romantic gesture.”

“We’re just platonically holding hands”, Henry claims. 

“Sure.” 

“They kept bumping into each other, it was getting annoying.”

Ted chuckles. “Okay.”

Henry risks a little glance at Ted and sees him smiling brightly. 

He can feel Teds thumb smoothly caress his hand. His heartbeat speeds up and he bites his lip, to suppress a smile. 

“How are you feeling now?”, he asks, to distract from the topic of them holding hands, while romantically walking on the beach. This is so cheesy. They’re not even together. 

“Better. The pain kinda fucked off now.”

Henry chuckles at Teds choice of words. 

“That was beautifully said.”

He smirks. “Thanks.”

They keep walking in silence for a while after that. 

The longer they walk the more Henry _knows_  he’s actually in love with Ted. Like _in love_ in love. This is the real thing he’s sure. 

He’s just not sure if and how to tell him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is getting so much longer that I had initially planned


	17. Non-platonic hand-holding

Ted starts to limp more, after they’ve been walking for about half an hour.

“Are you okay? Do you want to sit down? We can take a break you know?”, Henry immediately asks. 

Ted chuckles and looks up. 

“Henry I’m fine. It’s not that bad.”

“We can still stop. I mean we don’t even have a destination”, he just clarifies and so they do, setting their backpacks in the sand and sitting next to them. 

They let go of each other’s hands in the process and Henrys hand feels weirdly naked now. Ted seems to feel the same way, because after a few minutes deliberating, he reaches for Henrys hand and pulls it back into both of his. He holds it like some kind of treasure he found. He holds onto it with both hands, while still delicately caressing it, examining the bruises now. 

“Does it still hurt?”, he asks. 

“No. ..a little.”

Ted pulls it up to his lips and presses a kiss on Henrys knuckles. 

Henry can only sit there and hope that he’s not looking foolishly lovesick and red. But if he did, it would be the truth, because good God. 

“Hen?”

Henry looks up, smiling at the name. “Hen?”, he asks. 

“-ry.”

Henry chuckles. 

“Are you trying out nicknames?”

“I actually just wanted your attention but yeah, might as well.”

“Tell me when you settled on one.”

“How about _love_?”

_Yes please_. Henry’s free hand shoots up to his cheeks to cover the blush. “Smooth Ted.” 

“You called me that once or twice.”

“Do you miss it?” He didn’t actually mean to flirt but it came out that way. 

“Kinda”, Ted says, sounding dead serious. 

Yes and so does Henry. 

He stays silent and stares at the water instead. 

“Do you wanna get in?”, Ted asks after a while. 

“Hm?”

Ted gestures at the water, still holding Henrys hand and therefore pulling it along. 

“It will be cold”, Henry states.

“Coward.”

“Alright we’re going in.”

Ted laughs. “Are you really that easy to manipulate?”

“I guess. You meant just with the feet right?”

“Duh.”

—

About two minutes later they abandoned shoes and socks and rolled up their pants. They are standing in front of the water, not holding hands anymore and neither of them dares to make the first move and actually step in. 

“Coward”, Henry says after a while. 

Ted laughs.

“Together?”

“Okay.”

They walk into the water and it’s literally freezing. Henrys instinct makes him stop as soon as his toes touched it. 

“No”, he just says. 

Ted turns around, almost disappointed, his mouth fell open in disbelief and he throws his hands up while lightly shaking his head. 

“I’m not doing this alone”, he says, while he reaches out for Henry to pull him along. 

Henry stumbles further backwards, back to the beach. 

“We’re gonna die”, he says. 

“What? No? Stop being so dramatic.”

Henry chuckles. 

Ted gets a hold of his hand now and pulls him closer. Henry stumbles into his arms, because he didn’t expect that much strength. He accidentally pushes Ted back a little, who looses his balance and tumbles backwards to the ground, pulling Henry along. 

Ted somehow manages to catch himself on his arms, so he ends up sitting there, with his hands pinned in the sand behind him. 

Henry landed on top of him. He lifts his hand out of reflex, to push himself up from Teds shoulder, but he eventually ends up resting it there, when his and Teds eyes meet. 

God, he’s close. 

Ted’s lips showed the semblance of a laugh, but now he’s slowly getting more serious again, the longer they stare at each other. 

Henry tries not to stare at Teds lips but fucking hell, he’s in love with that guy. 

He lets his hand wander up from Teds shoulder, to his cheek, cupping it now. Ted opens his mouth, then closes it again. His gaze drops to Henrys lips for a moment, then he seems to catch himself and he looks back up. Or at least Henry believes to see that, maybe it’s just wishful thinking. 

“Henry?”, Ted whispers. His voice sounds weak and higher than it normally does. 

“Yes?”

“Kiss me or leave it but don’t give me hope like this, I swear to-“ Henry cuts him off with a kiss, when he finally looses the last bit of self-control he had. His eyes fall shut and he can’t help but sigh at the overwhelming wave of warm and jittery feelings. 

Ted gasps quietly, then returns the kiss, with the same desire, the same kind of longing. He pushes himself up a little, so he doesn’t have to lean on his arms anymore and is able to use them for something else. For example wrapping one around Henrys back or grabbing his thigh with the other. He pulls him closer, heaves him onto his lab and kisses him and kisses him and kisses him. 

Henry buries his fingers in Teds hair, accidentally tugging on it because it’s been too damn long since they did this and he might not be completely capable of controlling his own actions. Ted sighs and pulls on Henrys shirt. He grabs a fistful of the fabric and holds onto it. 

Henry feels like this is going too fast, but he can’t seem to find a brake and he’s not really looking for it too because he’s a little too into this. 

This is what love must feel like. He’s in love. He loves Ted. Oh god. 

“I’m sorry I broke up”, he whispers against Teds lips, completely out of breath, before he continues with kissing the corner of Teds mouth, then his cheek. 

“It’s okay, please just-“, Ted sighs when Henry reaches his jawline and continues wandering down to his neck, “just tell me this means something.”

“This?”, Henry asks between two kisses. 

“Yeah, please-“, he gently pushes Henry away a little and makes him look into his eyes, “Wait, give me a second Henry.. Shit.” He’s out of breath and he seems nervous. 

“Sorry”, Henry mumbles.

“I want you back so bad“, Ted breathes out.

Henry smiles. 

“Just please tell me that wasn’t some kind of platonic kiss. Like holding my hand earlier”, Ted quietly begs, actually meaning it. 

Henry chuckles. 

“Ted I think neither of that can actually be interpreted as platonic.”

He can feel Teds hands play with the fabric of his shirt on his back. 

“So it..?”

“Yes.”

Henry hesitantly looks for some kind of approval in Teds eyes. Agreement maybe. 

Ted nods, a hesitant smile spreads across his lips. 

“Ted?”, Henry utters.

Ted nods. He holds Henrys gaze, nervous as Henry lets his thumb caress Teds temple. He leans closer to him, to rest his forehead against Henrys. 

“Ted?”, Henry asks again, until he finds the courage to actually say those three words. 

Ted smiles. 

“Yeah, I’m listening”, he says.

He closed his eyes and he’s leaning into Henrys touch. Henry can’t help but watch him in admiration. 

“I love you”, Henry whispers. 

Ted opens his eyes and pulls back a little, so he can look at him. His brown eyes are wide open and there’s the semblance of a smile on his lips. 

“Yes?”, he asks quietly. 

Henry nods. “I love you. I have been for a while.”

The smile spreads over Teds lips, taking in the rest of his face now. 

“You love me”, he states. 

Henry nods again. 

“Is that okay?”, he asks. 

“If that’s-? Shit Henry, of course it is okay.”

“It’s just.. you said breaking up was the right thing and I-“ “I just said that so you don’t feel bad. I missed you like hell.”

He presses a kiss on Henrys lips. 

Then he nods, maybe to confirm to himself what he just heard. His eyebrows are slightly raised and he got all glassy eyed. 

“I love you too”, he then fumbles out. Henry smiles out of relief as his heart makes a little salto. Ted tries to catch his gaze. “I love you so much Henry you don’t even know.” 

He leans closer to place a kiss on Henrys cheek, then he hugs him and lets his head fall down on his shoulder, kind of nuzzling his face in Henrys neck. 

His chest is pressed up against Henrys and Henry is pretty sure he can feel Teds heart beating, just as fast as his. 

Henry finally gets a hold of himself and puts his arms around Ted and rests his head against his. 

“That was really romantic”, Ted mumbles.

Henry smiles like a dork. “It was perfect. God, I love you”, he says again, feeling Ted smile into his neck. 

They sit like that for a while and at some point Henry is pretty sure that he can feel the fabric of his shirt in his neck go damp.

“Are you crying?”, he asks.

“No?”, Teds voice sounds raspy. Henry pulls away to look at Ted, who quickly wipes the tears away. 

“What happened?”

Ted shakes his head. “Nothing! Nothing bad. I’m just so happy.”

“This is out of joy?”

He nods. 

“Thank god.”

Henry hugs him again, blinking away the tears in his eyes because Ted Richards is so happy he’s crying. He can’t hold himself back for long and starts crying too, sniffling quietly. 

Ted chuckles into his shoulder. 

“Are you crying too?”

“It’s contagious.”

“Sure.”

Ted looks up to Henry and they kiss again, softly and shy. It grows more passionate until Ted laughs into the kiss. 

“Oh my Hidgens, did you bring me here just to seduce me?”, he asks. 

His cheeks are red and he’s a little out of breath. Henry is almost proud of himself, because he made Ted Richards blush. That’s rare. 

“Yes”, he claims, even though he didn’t plan any of this. He’s just glad it happened. 

“Wow, I can‘t believe you got away with that.“

“I can’t believe you let me.”

“I’ll even let you kiss me again”, Ted says, before adding a quiet: “Please?”

Henry chuckles. “Okay”, he mumbles, before he kisses Ted again. 

They sit like that and kiss for a while. 

Ted’s hand sneaks under Henrys shirt at some point, making him blush but also nervous in a good way.

Henry can’t help but smile. 

“Ted we’re literally on the beach.”

“I didn’t try to take it _off_ you”, he defends himself, pulling his hand away.

“Sure.”

Ted grins. “What did you expect my brain to make me think? You’re sitting on top of me like _that_.”

“Are you sure that your brain made you think that and not some other part of your body?”

“Yes, I do. Shut up.”

Henry chuckles and leans forward to kiss Ted again. He reaches for Teds hand and puts it back on his waist.

“Oh well Hidgens, who’s needy now?”

“Ugh shh.”

“We’re on the _beach_ ”, Ted mocks him. 

Henry laughs quietly and pulls away from Ted. 

“No wait sorry come back”, Ted quickly says, pulling him back into his arms, into a hug. “Can I just hold you forever?”

Henry smiles. 

“Please do.”

— 

They spend the rest of the day on the beach until they eventually decide to go home. The sun sets on their way back and dips everything in a pretty orange glow, even Ted which is why Henry can’t stop looking at him.

Ted catches him staring at some point and smiles. 

“Caught you”, he says. 

“I’m not ashamed.”

Ted laughs and reaches for Henrys hand, to hold it. 

“Just to be clear this is not platonic”, he says.

“Neither was it earlier.”

“You little shit.”

Henry chuckles. “You believed that?”

“Uh yes?”

“Good god.”

“Well I’m sorry but you broke up with me.”

Henry smiles. “Sorry for that.”

“It’s fine, we’re back together now.”

“Yes we are.”

Ted just lets go of Henry’s hand and - before Henry can start to protest - puts his arm around Henrys shoulders. Henry smiles like a child and puts his arm around Teds waist. This is even better.

The closer they get to the end of the beach, the more Henry realises that they’ll have to split up soon because their houses are in two completely different directions. Henry also realises that he doesn’t really want Ted to go home. 

“Do you want to come home with me? To my place”, he therefore asks.

“Yes.” 

Henry smiles because that came quick. 

“That was energetic.”

“I just really miss Frank-N-Furter.”

Henry laughs quietly. 

“And I don’t wanna go home.”

“Okay.”

“And I don’t want to leave you yet.”

“Me neither.”

Ted looks up. 

“I love you.”

Henry smiles and bites his lip. He’ll have to get used to those words at some point but they sound way too good every time they come out of Teds mouth.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the cheesiest shit I have ever written pls don’t hate me


	18. Falling asleep on accident

It’s quiet when they enter Henrys home. Henry closes the door behind the two of them. 

They leave their shoes and backpacks in the corridor and Henry goes for the kitchen with Ted following him. Someone put a note on the table, probably his mom. His guess proves to be true when he steps closer to read it. 

‘Your dad and I went on a date because we’re still romantic. There‘s food in the fridge if you‘re hungry.‘

Henry smiles. 

“Aw”, Ted makes. He leaned over Henrys shoulder to read it too. 

“Are we hungry?”, Henry asks.

“We just had hot dogs.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No we just had hot dogs.”

Ted chuckles. 

“Come on”, Henry says, before he pulls him out of the kitchen again. 

“Now where is my boy?”, Ted asks and Henry turns around, confused, just to see him looking around, searching for something. Or someone.

“Are you talking about me or Frank-N-Furter?”

“Frank. ..sorry.”

“No thank god.”

Ted laughs. 

Henry points him in the direction of the living room. “He’s in there, most of the time.”

Ted didn’t even wait for him to finish that sentence, he’s already stepping into the living room. And apparently Henry was right.

“Oh hey buddy!” 

Henry chuckles when he sees Ted sit down on the carpet to pet Frank. 

“You really did miss him huh?”

“So much.”

Henry flops down on the couch. He pulls out his phone and checks it for the first time that day. 

He‘s immediately overwhelmed by a bunch of texts from Emma. 

_Where are you?_

_You’re not in school._

_Are you sick?_

_U were fine this morning._

_Ted’s gone too. R u with him?_

_Omg I bet you are_

_Damn Henry_

_Use protection ;)_

“Good God”, Henry mumbles, before he quickly shuts his phone off again. 

“You alright?”

He looks up at Ted, who’s coming over now, looking for a place to sit down on the couch. 

“Yes.” Henry opens his arms, gesturing for Ted to come cuddle. 

He immediately smiles and clambers half next to him, half on top of him, before laying down into his embrace. 

“Is Frank already sick of you?”

“He walked away. Fucking rude.”

Henry laughs. 

“Don’t laugh. My heart is broken.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ted’s hand wanders over Henrys chest, upwards until he rests it on his shoulder and starts playing with the material of his pullover. 

“I like you better anyway”, he says.

“I’m relieved.” 

Henry wraps his arms firmer around Ted, keeping him close. 

“This is better than sex”, Ted mumbles after a while.

Henry smiles. “You never even had sex.”

Ted stays quiet, so Henry adds an: “Or did you?”

“No, but you said that like you did.”

“Good god no.”

Ted chuckles. 

“I’m just saying this is so good, I can’t imagine anything being better than that.”

“I guess we’ll see”, Henry says, not thinking much of it. 

“Jesus Christ”, Ted mutters. 

“What?”

“You always seem so innocent and prude and then you announce stuff like that. I can’t handle it.”

Henry chuckles. 

”All I’m saying is that the probability of us losing our virginity to each other at some point is pretty high.”

“The probability”, he repeats, “Why am I in love with you?”

“Because I’m great”, Henry says, before placing a kiss on Teds forehead. 

“Damn yeah you are.”

Henry laughs quietly. 

Ted snuggles into Henrys neck and places soft kisses there, making Henry smile and close his eyes. 

Then they just lay there for a while, until they eventually fall asleep on accident. 

—

Henry wakes up when he hears his parents whisper. 

“Shh”, his mom makes, “don’t wake them up.” 

“Who’s that? His boyfriend?”, his dad asks. 

“Ex actually. Or maybe not anymore.”

“He had his first boyfriend and no one told me?” He sounds offended and kind of hurt now. 

“It didn’t last that long.”

Well thanks mom. 

Henry frowns now and opens his eyes. They stand in the door leading to the corridor and they didn’t notice him waking up. 

Henry looks at Ted for a moment, all peaceful and cute, before he entangles himself from Teds arms and gets up, careful not to wake him up too. 

His parents look up, when he comes towards them, still feeling sleepy and tired. 

“Sorry we didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s not like you guys were quiet.”

“Sorry”, his mom chuckles. 

„Don‘t you wanna sleep in your bed?“, his dad asks. 

“We didn‘t mean to fall asleep.”

“He‘ll have the worst neckpain tomorrow.”

“Can he stay?”

“We’re not gonna sent him home at one am Henry”, his mom says. 

“What’s his name anyway?”, his dad asks a little too loud. 

“Ssh. ..It’s Ted”, Henry whispers. 

“Are you back together?”, his mom asks a little too excited, not even bothering to whisper anymore. 

“Sssh good god! ..Yes.”

She smiles. 

“Is he nice?”, his dad asks her. 

“He’s great”, his mom says. 

“Mom, dad please.”

“Sorry! Sorry.”

Henry shakes his head and pushes them away from the door. 

“Go to bed”, he says. 

“You too!”, his mom calls out, before going up the stairs, pulling Henrys dad along. 

“Good night”, Henry whisper-shouts. 

His dad waves. 

Then they’re gone. 

Henry goes back into the living room just to find Ted sitting up, massaging his neck. 

“Hey”, Henry says. 

Ted flinches and turns to him, getting up now. 

“We fell asleep”, he states. 

“Yes. Come on.” Henry nods into the direction of the stairs. 

“Where are we going?”

“Bed.”

“Good idea.”

Ted follows Henry to his bedroom and they stop in it. Henry goes over to the closet. 

“Do you want more comfortable clothes?”, he asks, as if that’s a necessary question. But he’d feel weird to just suddenly throw sweatpants at Ted, so he’s trying to warn him. 

“Your clothes?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, yes!” 

Henry chuckles at Teds excitement. 

“Why so excited?”

“It’ll smell like you.”

Henry smiles and rolls his eyes, pretending he wouldn’t freak out if Ted offered him a sweater. But if he’s perfectly honest, he’d wear that sweater forever. 

He pulls some sweatpants and a T-Shirt out of his closet now, throwing both at Ted who barely manages to catch it. 

“Thanks”, he says. 

“Do you need a toothbrush?”, Henry asks. 

“It’s not like I brought one.”

“That’s a yes.”

—

As soon as they’ve brushed their teeth and changed (Ted looks too damn adorable in Henrys clothes, Henry might marry him already), they settle in bed. 

Henry turns off the light and then it’s quiet. 

“Cuddle?”, Ted whispers and Henry immediately scoots over. He gently taps Teds shoulder. 

“Turn.”

Ted seems confused but rolls on his side, just to be spooned by Henry. 

“I always thought you’d be the little spoon”, Ted mumbles. 

Henry smiles, when Ted interlaces his fingers with his and leans back a little, further against Henrys chest.

“Wanna switch?”, Henry whispers. 

“No.” Ted chuckles. “I’m into it.”

He turns his head to Henry, as far as he can. 

“Kiss me good night?” 

Henry grins. “Bossy.”

“No.”

“Yes you are.” Before Ted can object any further, Henry fits their lips together. 

Ted smiles against Henrys lips when they separate. “Good night”, he whispers. 

“Night”, Henry whispers back, suddenly feeling way too tired again. 

It’s in the middle of the night after all. He quickly pushes another kiss on Teds temple, before he lays back into the pillow, head buried in the back of Teds neck and eyes closed. 

It doesn’t take long for him to fall back to sleep, cuddled up against Ted who’s peacefully breathing.

— 

Henry could have cried when his alarm goes off in the morning. He somehow manages to turn it off and wraps his arms back around Ted. 

“Was that your alarm?”, Ted whispers. 

“Uh-huh.”

“No, let’s skip today.”

Henry chuckles. 

“We already skipped yesterday.”

“Let’s skip forever, let’s run off.”

“We don’t even have money.”

“All we need is our love for each other.”

“No we need food or we’ll die.”

“Fucking pessimist.”

Henry chuckles. 

“I can shower first so you can lay here and wake up for a while.”

“Or I could join you.” Ted turns to him just to wink. 

Henry rolls his eyes, smiling now. 

“No. Why are you like this?” 

“Gotta keep my sleazeball image _somehow_.” 

“What sleazeball image? You’re so nice and soft.”

Ted chuckles. “See. I lost it.” 

“Don’t worry, Emma still thinks you’re a dick.” 

“Thank god.”

“Alright I’m going to take a shower now. ..alone.” 

“You’re missing out.” 

“Maybe someday love.” 

“Damn Hidgens”, Ted mumbles into the pillow, trying to hide that he’s blushing but Henry can see it anyway. 

He smiles and reaches for Teds hand to press a kiss on his palm. 

“Don’t fall asleep again”, he then says, before he gets up. 

“I won’t”, Ted promises. 

— 

When Henry comes back in his bedroom, Ted is asleep again, hugging Henrys blanket. 

“Ted?”, he whispers, sitting down on the edge of the bed now. 

“Shit”, he mumbles. 

“You fell asleep.”

“I fell asleep. Why is your bed so fucking comfortable?”

“Sorry.”

“And everything smells like you goddamn it.”

Henry chuckles. Ted finally looks up at him. 

“Oh you’re cute with wet hair.”

Henry blushes.

“If you get up now, I’ll lend you a sweater for the day”, he changes the topic. 

Ted shoots up. 

“Yes?”

“Only if you promise not to kidnap it.”

“I might kidnap it though.”

“Yes doesn’t matter, I’ll give it to you anyway. ..if you get up.”

“Okay, I’m up.” He sits up, rubbing his eyes now. 

Henry gets up and goes to his closet, picking out a sweater and a towel and throwing both at Ted. 

“Thanks”, he grins. 

“I’ll be downstairs, alright?”

He nods, already hugging the sweater now.

—

His dad is in the kitchen when Henry comes down. 

He looks up and seems almost disappointed when he sees that Henry is alone.

“Where is he?”

“Shower. Please don’t be weird when he comes down.”

He puts his hand on his chest and pretends to be offended. “Ouch!”

“Mom was weird too and you guys are basically the same person.”

“Are you telling me I married myself?”

“I once read you’re attracted to people who are like you so I guess a lot of people marry themselves.”

“That’s so weird.”

“I guess.”

“I kind of have to go but I really want to meet him.”

“Dad you don’t have to wait, you’ll be late.”

He looks at his watch and shakes his head. “Still got a few minutes.”

“Good god. I can bring him to dinner at some point if you want to meet him so bad.”

“Your mom already met him!”

“Are you jealous?”

“A little”

“It’s not like mom knows him that well. She probably exaggerated it to make you jealous.”

“I just want to say hi and introduce myself. Please.”

Henry rolls his eyes.

“Yeah fine. It’s not like I can stop you right?”

“No.”

He can hear Ted come down the stairs now. 

His dad gets visibly excited. “That’s him”, he whispers. 

Henry just lightly shakes his head. 

Ted steps into the kitchen, looking all cute with wet hair and in Henrys sweater. He seems confused for a moment.

“Good morning”, he manages. 

Henry quickly walks over to him. He puts his hand on his back, maybe to give him some sense of assurance. It’s mostly automatic.

“Dad this is Ted. Ted this is my dad”, he quickly says. 

His dad is grinning from ear to ear. 

“Earl”, he says, extending his arm to shake Teds hand, “nice to finally meet you.”

Ted takes his hand, smiling too. 

“Likewise, hi.”

Henry’s dad just keeps holding Teds hand and it gets weirder the longer it lasts. 

Henry carefully reaches for their hands and separates them. 

“Dad you were in a hurry, remember?”

“Right! Right.”

He quickly grabs his bag. 

“See you tonight!”

He hugs Henry and presses a kiss on his head, then he hesitates in front of Ted. They end up doing a weird ‘Do-I-Shake-His-Hand-Or-Do-I-Hug-Him’-hug.

“Bye! It was so nice to meet you!”, he says again, then he finally leaves. 

Henry takes a deep breath, closing his eyes now. “I’m so sorry, I told him not to be weird”, he says. 

When he opens his eyes, he sees Ted smiling brightly. 

“No, he was great. Both of your parents are amazing, I like them.”

“Amazing but weird?”

“I guess. Weird’s cool though.”

His arm sneaks around Henrys waist and he pulls him closer. 

“How are you by the way?”, Henry asks. 

“What do you mean?” 

Henry gestures to his own face to hint at Teds bruises and everything. 

“Oh that. Good. Or better I guess. I had kind of forgotten about it for a while there.” 

“That’s good though, that means you’re not in that much pain anymore.”

“Yes.” He smiles, leaning his forehead against Henrys now. 

“Are you hungry?”, Henry asks. 

Ted chuckles, then nods. “So hungry.”


	19. Unconcealed hand-holding

Emma disappears after they reached the school the next morning. She just scoffed, when she opened the door and saw the two of them holding hands. 

“Of fucking course”, she had mumbled and - to Henrys relief - left it at that. 

Now that they’ve reached the school, she saw Charlotte from afar and ran off. 

And here Ted and Henry are, still holding hands and for some reason, Ted doesn’t let go. 

Henry stops and therefore Ted stops too. 

“What are you doing?”, Henry asks. 

“Holding your hand.”

Henry scans him. He can see how nervous Ted is, but there’s also firmness in his expression. He’s really doing this. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He hesitates. “Do you feel pressured to do this because you’re scared I’ll leave you again if you don’t?”

Ted smiles and shakes his head. 

“No. I’ve thought about this a lot and I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to be your boyfriend for real. I want to hold your hand and I want to spend time with you in school and kiss you on the corridor and stuff. I’m sick of hiding and I don’t care what they think, it’s none of their business anyway.”

“There’s no going back if we do this. They’ll know.”

“I know. But you see, I’m not doing this for them, I’m doing this for me.. and you. Us. This is just us. ..I mean if you’re okay with that.”

“Of course I’m okay with that.”

Ted smiles, squeezing Henrys hand now.

“Let‘s do this then.”

“Okay.” 

They start to walk again and Henry looks up at Ted who‘s looking straightforward. 

“Are you really sure?”, Henry asks again, just to be safe. 

Ted looks up. “Sweetheart..”

“I just want you to be happy and you weren’t happy at all when everybody suddenly knew.”

“But this time it’s my decision.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay okay.”

Ted grins and brings Henrys hand up to his lips to press a kiss on it, before he lets it sink again, still firmly holding onto it. 

Henry smiles now. 

“You called me sweetheart.”

“Liked it?”

“You could call me the cheesiest shit and I’d still melt so yes I guess.”

Ted grins. “I’ll keep that in mind then.”

—

People are trying not to stare too obvious, but they certainly are looking. At least no one dares to say something. 

Henry’s almost holding his breath until they reach his locker and Ted leans against the one next to it. 

“Are they staring?”, Ted asks quietly. 

“I don’t know, I don’t really dare to turn around.”

“Me neither. Just gonna look at you, you look really cute today.”

Henry smiles and - of course - blushes. 

“Have you looked at yourself?”, he hits back, keeping his voice low, because he feels like they’re not quite at the point where they are flirting loud enough for people to hear, “You wearing my clothes does things to me you know. It makes me want to just take you back home and..” he stops himself and smiles at Ted who’s blushing next to him and staring at him with wide eyes. 

“And?”, he whispers. 

“Cuddle you.”

Ted chuckles. 

“That’s not what you initially planned to say, is it?”

“Isn’t it?”, Henry looks up, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“Shit Henry.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter Richards.”

“Henry..” 

Henry chuckles. 

“And take it off you alright?”

Ted’s jaw drops lightly and his cheeks go into an even darker red. Then he slowly seems to catch himself. “Damn Hidgens, keep it in your pants. Stop being so horny every time you see me.” 

Henry giggles quietly, closing his locker now. “Shut”, he mumbles. 

“How about you shut me up?”

“We’re _literally_ in public.”

Ted laughs, sneaking an arm around Henry now, almost casually. 

“Let’s go to class then.”

—

It’s lunch break now and the day actually went pretty good. Chad kept his stupid mouth shut (that was the one Henry was mostly worried about) and no one else said anything either. 

They’re sitting with Charlotte, Emma and Bill now. 

Ted put his arm around Henrys waist and Henry keeps feeding him with fries, because he’s full but he doesn’t want to throw them away and for some reason Ted lets him do it. 

“Where’s Paul by the way?”, Emma asks now, “He owes me ten bucks.”

“Why?”, Henry mumbles. 

“We made a bet yesterday. I told him you guys are back together and probably getting all hot and heavy somewhere, when you two disappeared after first period and he didn’t believe me.”

“We didn’t-“, Henry starts, just to get interrupted. 

“Whatever, you two are a thing again and that’s what matters right?”

“..I guess.”

“Where did you go anyway? Home?”

“The beach.”

“Romantic!”, Charlotte exclaims, then she nudges Emma in the side, “We should do that some time.”

“Cheesy”, Emma whines, before she turns to Charlotte, “But sure let’s skip now.”

Charlotte shakes her head. “I have a test.”

“Tomorrow then.”

“Okay.”

Emma grins and Charlotte giggles, before kissing her on the cheek. 

“You okay man?”, Henry hears Ted ask Bill. 

Bill nods. “Sure.” 

Henry slowly realises that he has indeed been weirdly quiet all that time. 

“Are you sure?”, Charlotte asks. 

Bill shrugs, sighing now. 

“I think Paul’s not here because he’s mad at me.”

“Why would he be mad at you?”, Charlotte asks. 

“He asked me to prom and I just.. just ugh.” 

“You said no?”, Henry blurts out, surprised because in all that time he’s seen them interact, he felt like they were flirting with each other, on a mutual level.

“No!”, Bill quickly says, “No I said.. pay attention to the words I emphase alright? I said it exactly like that, it’s important. I said: _You_ wanna go with _me_?”

He looks up and stares at them, with big asking eyes. 

“Okay”, Emma says, drawing the ‘o’.

“How does that sound?”, Bill asks. 

“Like you can’t believe he asked you”, Ted says. 

“Yes, but does it sound like I’m surprised because I feel like I’m too good for him or am I surprised because I feel like he’s the most amazing guy I’ve ever known and I can’t believe he’d be interested in me?”

“Could be both”, Ted says. 

“Exactly! And I’ve been thinking and I’m sure he heard the first version, while I obviously meant the second one. He looked hurt after I said that.”

“Damn dude, you’ve been thinking about that a lot have you?”, Ted goes on. 

“I haven’t slept. He just went: ‘Oh, you don’t have to’. And, the knucklehead that I am, I went: ‘I thought we’d all go as a group’ and only later realised that he wanted to make it a date, probably.”

“He wanted to make it a date”, Ted confirms. 

“He told you?”

“He’s been nervous about it for a while.”

“Damn it.”

“You should talk to him”, Charlotte suggests. 

Henry can see Ted nod. 

“I tried but he runs off every time he sees me”, Bill mumbles, burying his face in his hands now. 

“He’ll come around”, Charlotte says. 

“I can try and make him talk to you”, Ted offers. 

Bill let’s his hands sink and looks up. 

“You’d do that?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

It’s quiet for a while, until Emma says: “I totally forgot about prom.”

“That’s why you didn’t ask”, Charlotte mumbles. 

“Do you want me to ask you?”

“I mean.. I wouldn’t be mad if you did.”

“Do you want to go?”

“Yes!”

Emma smiles. “I can’t believe you made me do this.”

“Can I do your hair?” 

Henry chuckles. 

Emma nods. “Yes.” 

Charlotte wraps her arms around Emma’s waist and puts her head on her shoulder. “Love you”, she says and Emma grins. 

— 

When Henry and Ted leave the cafeteria, they run into Paul. 

He looks at them, nearly panicking until he realises it’s just the two of them. 

“Hey man”, Ted says. 

“Hey.” His gaze drops to their hands, fingers interlocked. “Are you guys dating again?”

Ted nods. 

“Shit.”

“Well thanks?”, Ted says. Henry chuckles. 

“No! I mean I’m happy for you guys, it’s just that I owe Emma ten bucks now.”

“Shit happens.”

“Yeah. ..but seriously, I’m really happy for you.”

“By the way, we just talked to Bill.”

Paul’s expression drops. “Oh.”

“You should talk to him.”

He hesitates. “Why? It‘s embarrassing.”

“Paul trust me. Talk to him.”

“He didn’t want to go to prom with me.”

“Yes he did you noodle.”

“No and I mean I get it, why would he?”

Ted sighs, looking completely done now and Henry can’t help but smile. Paul goes on. 

“He said ‘ _You_  want to go with _me_?’, like _yeah_ why did I even ask?”

“Paul you’re so fucking stupid.”

“Can you stop putting me down? I feel shitty enough.”

“He couldn’t believe you asked him because he thinks you’re too good for him, not the other way around.”

Paul stops and frowns. 

“He said that?”

“Yes.”

Paul opens his mouth to say something else, but stops and looks up when the door of the cafeteria falls shut. Henry turns around just to see Bill. He opened his mouth, maybe to say something but now he’s just staring at Paul. Ted nudges Paul’s shoulder. “Go to him, don’t be a dumbass.”

“Okay”, Paul mumbles, swallowing heavily, before he pushes past them and goes to Bill. 

Henry looks at Ted, smiling now. When Ted notices that, he smiles too, mumbling a quiet “What?”

“That was nice.”

“Ssh.”

“You’re not a sleazeball, like at all.”

He chuckles. “Shut up.”

Henry smiles and reaches for Teds sweater - his sweater - to pull him into a kiss. He only really realises what he’s doing when their lips meet and he can feel Teds hands on his waist. He pulls back. 

“Sorry, is this alright? Are you comfortable with this? Or are we just holding hands?”

“Yes, yes please kiss me.”

“Okay.”

And they kiss again. 


	20. Ted asks Henry to prom with a big romantic gesture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No he doesn‘t

It’s been two weeks since they said their first ‘I love you’s and since Ted decided he doesn’t want to hide anymore and it’s actually going pretty well. 

They’re in Henry’s room now, just making out at this point, because Henrys parents aren’t home and they are in love and also horny teenagers. 

Plus Henry’s mom caught them making out once and it was really awkward, which is why they decided to only make out when neither of Henrys parents are home. 

Now, for example. 

They lay next to each other and as close as they possibly can. Henry wrapped his leg around Teds, as well as his arms around his back, fingers slowly disappearing in his soft hair as their lips interlock again and again. 

Ted let his hand sneak under Henrys shirt at some point in the process and now it’s just laying there, just resting on Henrys ribs for the sake of touching his skin. And Henry’s loosing his mind about it. 

Ted pulls him closer now, fingers gently pressing into Henry waist for a moment, as he lets himself sink on his back, pulling Henry along. And then Henry’s on top of Ted, still kissing him, sighing quietly when he feels Teds hands slide from his waist over his back, his fingers smooth and warm. He brings his hands up to Teds face again, burying his fingers in his hair and caressing his temples with his thumbs. 

He gradually lets his lips roam further from the kiss, kissing the corner of Teds mouth and his jawline, down to his neck. He moves one hand down to pull on the collar of Teds shirt, to give himself more space. 

Ted sighs quietly, his grip on Henrys back getting slightly stronger. 

“Is that alright?”, Henry whispers against his neck. 

He can see Ted smile in his peripheral vision. “Shit yes.”

He continues at Teds necks, keeps placing kisses on his skin for a while, until Ted pulls him up into a kiss again. 

He smiles against Henrys lips. “Shit Henry”, he whispers. 

Henry chuckles, thinking about kissing him again, before Ted pulls back. “Wait you’re turning me on”, he says quietly. 

Henry smiles, biting his lip now. “Sorry.”

“You’re not really sorry, are you?”

“A little sorry.”

“That’s something.”

Then Ted looks up and their gazes meet and for a few seconds the two of them just sit there, staring at each other with rosy cheeks and out of breath. 

“Do you wanna go to prom?”, Ted asks now. 

“Do you?”, Henry asks. 

“I don’t know I asked first.”

Henry chuckles. “And you’re asking now?”

He smirks broadly. “Did you want me to do a flashmob or something?” 

“God no.” 

“But you wanted me to ask?”

Henry eyes him, hesitating for a moment. And Ted stares back with his warm brown eyes, chewing on his lip and waiting for him to answer.

“I don’t know. I mean, I could have asked too, I just..” Henry shrugs. 

“You don’t want to go.”

“I didn’t know if you wanted to.” 

“Why is this my decision?” 

“I just didn’t know if you’re ready to show up with a boyfriend on such an event and I didn’t want to pressure you. Plus, I’m not good at big social events.”

“Henry we’ve literally made out in school, I think we’ve reached that point.”

“So you want to go?”

“If you do. ..I mean it’d be kind of sad to miss it don’t you think? Plus you’d see me in a suit which is obviously your lifelong dream.”

Henry laughs. “Alright let’s go then.”

“The suit convinced you?“ 

“Absolutely.”

“Are you sure you want to go? We can also stay at home and watch a movie if you want to.”

“Let’s make that plan B if it ends up being no fun at all.”

“Alright.”

Ted lets his hand wander up and down Henrys waist, kind of caressing it. 

“Your skin is really soft”, he says. 

Henry laughs quietly. “You sound like a serial killer.”

“I promise I won’t kill and skin you.”

“Thanks, that’s reassuring.”

“That’s just how nice I am.” 

Henry smiles and lays down on top of Ted, his arms having gotten tired of pushing him up. 

“You know I read kissing reduces anxiety”, Ted murmurs. 

Henry smiles. “You sure?”

“Please don’t make me try and proof that, just kiss me.”

“Well you’re the one who told me to stop.”

“Because you’re just too damn hot.”

“I’m not hot.”

“God _yes_ you are. Don’t be ridiculous.”

Henry chuckles. “Shut up”, he mumbles, before he pushes himself up a little and kisses Ted again. 

—

Teds waiting in front of the school for Henry and Henry can’t help but notice how he’s wearing his sweater again. 

“Nice sweater”, Henry says when he reaches him. 

Ted pulls him closer and presses a quick kiss on his lips. 

“Thanks I stole it from my pretty boyfriend.”

Henry chuckles. “Pretty?”

“ _And_  smart and nice and funny. Pretty is not your only quality but it’s a nice bonus.”

“Well thanks.”

Henry brings his hands up to Teds head and lets them rest in his neck. 

“It stopped smelling like you though”, Ted points out. 

Henry smiles. “How frustrating”, he mumbles.

“I’ll give you one of mine if you give me a new one of yours.”

Fucking finally. Henry tries to keep it together, he’s not freaking out. “Okay deal.” 

“Wanna go to class?”

“Want to or have to?”

“We could skip.”

“No.”

“Ugh nerd.”

“Hey.”

“I love you.”

Henry smiles and wraps his arm around Ted, leading him into the direction of the front door now. 

—

They reach the classroom quicker than they’d like and when they step in, their teacher waves at Henry, waving him over. 

“See you”, Ted mumbles, before he walks over to his chair. 

Henry makes his way to the teachers desk. 

“Hey Henry, just a quick question”, she says. 

“Sure, what is it?”

“That project you handed in with Ted. Did you do it alone?”

“No, why?”

“For real?”

“Yes, actually he did most of it.”

“Alright, I believe I can trust you?”

“It’s the truth.”

“Okay, thank you. Take a seat.”

He smiles and gets to his seat, plopping into it. 

—

First period lasts forever but at least they get their projects back in the end. 

Half of the class is already out and Henrys waiting on Ted, so they can get it together. 

Their teacher smiles when she hands it to them. “Well done.” 

“Thanks”, Henry says while taking it from her, before he pulls Ted out of the classroom. 

“And?”, Ted asks. 

“Don’t know, wait.” 

Henry skims through it until he gets to the page where she wrote the grade. 

“A”, he mumbles, reading it. 

“Yeah funny.”

“No I mean it.” He holds it towards Ted to show him the red ‘A’ at the end of the page. 

Ted’s jaw drops. “You sure?” 

“Yes.” Henry chuckles at his disbelief. 

“But you.. you probably had to change a lot right?”

“I hate to boost your ego like that but I barely changed anything.” 

It’s the truth. Henry did read through it but it was already so good that he just ended up making tiny changes, mostly concerning the structure of a sentence or the choice of words, never content-wise. 

“You’re kidding.”

“Why would I? You earned this.”

“I never had an A.” He smiles now and it’s really cute. 

Henry leans forward to press a kiss on his cheek, because he can‘t help himself.

“Ugh PDA!”, Emma says, nudging Henry in the shoulder. 

“Jesus Christ Perkins, let us celebrate”, Ted says, rolling his eyes. Henry chuckles and Emma flips him off. 

“What did you get?”, she asks. 

“A”, Henry admits.

“Nerds.”

“I’m not the nerd!”, Ted clarifies. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You did most of the project”, Henry points out. 

“Damn Ted”, Paul says, appearing next to Emma now. 

“This is what you do when you’re in love”, Ted claims, wrapping his arm around Henry now. “Right sweetheart?”

Henry chuckles and leans in to kiss him. 

Emma whines. 

“What did you guys get?”, Henry asks now.

“B+”, Emma says. 

“Damn!”, Ted exclaims, high-fiving Paul. 

“Hey guys”, Henry hears Bill.

He arrived with Charlotte, who has already reached Emma now and is hugging her from behind, her head resting against Emmas. Emma smiles and turns to her to kiss her. The same Emma who just complained about Ted and Henry doing basically the same. Henry rolls his eyes, smiling when he feels Teds pulling him closer, leaning against him. 

“You guys good now?”, Ted asks, looking at Paul and Bill who stand next to each other, both of them seeming kind of nervous. 

“Yes!”, Bill announces, “we’re going to prom.”

Both of them grin happily. 

Henry notices Paul’s hand brushing Bills and he‘s pretty sure it‘s not a coincidence when he sees how nervous he looks. 

“Hey all of you are going too right? We thought we could all go for dinner beforehand. I’ll drive”, Paul says. 

“Like a group date?”, Emma asks. 

“I guess”, he admits, “But also we’re a group of friends so..”

“Sounds cool”, Ted says now, looking at Henry, maybe to seek some kind of agreement. 

Henry nods. 

“Alright you two are in. Emma? Charlotte?”

“I think it sounds fun”, Charlotte admits and Emma nods. 

“Yeah let’s do it.”

“Great”, Paul says. 

Then the bell rings. 

“Okay bye!”, he says and everyone scatters to leave. 

Henry and Ted do too, going for the front door. Both of them don’t have a class anymore. 

“God did you see how nervous he was?”, Ted asks. 

“Paul?”

“Yes. That’s why he wants to do the group thing. He’s too nervous to take Bill for dinner alone.”

“Bill seemed pretty nervous too.”

“Yes he did, didn’t he?”

“That’s why you said yes? To back Paul up?”

“Yeah I did. Is that alright with you?”

“Yeah. Why not? It‘s gonna be fun.”

“Okay.”

“So..” 

“So?”

“What are you doing now?”

“I don’t know, any ideas?”

“You could come home with me.”

Ted smiles. “Oh my. At least buy me a drink first.”

Henry rolls his eyes. “Ted I swear to god.”


	21. A gunshot wound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: - mention of a shot wound  
> \- mention of blood  
> \- mention of bruises  
> \- mention of physical abuse

Ted doesn’t come to school the next friday and no one knows what’s up.

Henry texts him but he doesn‘t answer, so Henry spends the whole morning worried. He has a bad feeling about it and he‘s not sure why. 

So he somehow manages to talk Paul into skipping the rest of the day with him and driving him to Teds house. 

They have to stop at every single red light and Henry feels like it takes forever. Especially when an ambulance drives past them, coming exactly from the direction of Teds house. 

Henry‘s fingers are digging in the handle on the inner side of the car door and Paul notices. 

“Calm down, he’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re making me all nervous.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine, I get it.”

“Can you drive faster?”

“I’m not going over the speed limit.”

“Ugh.”

—

They eventually arrive. There are police cars in front of the house and Henry spots Ted immediately. He’s talking to two officers. 

So something did happen. 

He gets out of the car before Paul fully stopped and hurries towards Ted, just to be stopped by a police officer. 

“Sir I’m afraid you can’t get closer. Do you live there?”

“No.”

“So, take a step back.”

“That’s my boyfriend. Is he okay?”

Henry is not sure how he got the courage. Usually he’d just nod and quickly step back. But now he’s panicking so much, he didn’t even think about what he’s doing. 

“Your boyfriend huh?” He turns around gesturing something to the officer talking to Ted, pointing at Henry. 

The officer seems to ask Ted something and Ted finally turns around, his eyebrows moving up and his lips parting slightly. Then he quickly nods and says something to the officer, who then waves at the guy who stopped Henry.

“Alright, go”, he says, stepping away so Henry can go through. And he does, running to Ted now. 

“Hey”, Ted says. Henry just falls into his arms, relieved that he’s standing there. He flinches a little, maybe out of pain, so Henry pulls back again. 

“Sorry. Are you okay? What happened?”

Now that he’s closer to him, he sees that he cried. And he sees the little cut on his cheekbone, the bruise under his lip. And then there’s the blood on his shirt, literally soaking it. A lot of blood. 

Ted must notice him looking there, because he says: “That’s not mine.”

“Whose is it then?”

“My dads.” His voice cracks on the ‘a’ and Henrys heart stops for a moment. 

“What? Is he..?” 

Ted shakes his head. “Not yet. I don’t know. She had a gun, she just shot at him. She got his stomach. Stomach is especially bad because of the organs you know? They drove him away, to the hospital, but I..” He sobs. 

Henry hesitantly steps closer to him. He wants to hug him, but he’s scared he’ll hurt him again. He can see a bruise on Teds arm and there must be more underneath the shirt, according to the way, he flinched when Henry hugged him. 

Ted just kind of lets himself fall in Henrys arms and Henry pulls him closer, as gentle as possible. 

“I’m so sorry”, Henry whispers. 

“I can’t loose him”, Ted mumbles under heavy sobs. 

“You won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No I don’t”, Henry admits. 

He lets his hand wander over Teds back, up and down, up and down, in an attempt to calm him down at least a little. 

“Where’s your mom?”, he whispers. 

“They arrested her. I told them everything.”

“But that’s good, right? She can’t hurt you anymore.”

Ted nods, sniffling now. His breath is going unsteady, like he’s constantly fighting for air, like he’s drowning. 

His fingers dig into Henry’s back, maybe looking for safety or some kind of steadiness and Henry lets him.

“That just kinda makes me an orphan if he dies”, Ted mutters, his voice all broken and choppy. 

“He’ll make it. Okay?” He has to. 

“Okay.”

“Okay”, Henry whispers, placing a kiss on Teds temple now. 

“I love you”, Ted mumbles. 

“I love you too.”

“Thank you for being here.”

“Of course. You didn’t come to school, we were worried.”

Ted pulls away a little and places his forehead against Henrys, framing his face with both hands now. His hands are shaking. 

Henry takes them in his and brings them together in front of his lips, kissing them softly. 

“Take a breath Ted”, he mumbles. Ted nods and takes a shaky breath, closing his eyes for a moment. 

“Do you want to drive to the hospital?”

“Do you have a car?”

“Paul does, he drove me here.”

“Yes please.”

“Can you go? Or do you have to talk to the police again?”

“I think we were done.”

He turns away from Henry, looking at one of the officers. “Can I go to my dad?” 

The officer nods. “Need a ride?”

Ted shakes his head. “Thank you”, he says, before he turns back to Henry. 

“Come.”

Henry wraps his arm around Ted and they walk over to Paul, who’s being blocked by the same officer who wouldn’t let Henry go through earlier. 

“Are you okay?”, he immediately asks. 

Ted nods. “Can you drive us to the hospital?”

“Yeah, sure.”

— 

As soon as they’re in the car, Henry gives Paul a quick summary of what happened, while Ted just sits next to him, sobbing and sniffling quietly and clenching Henrys hand. 

They have to wait in the hospital lobby while Teds dad is in the operating room. 

It feels like hours. 

They’re just sitting there. Paul is leaning in his chair and he’s staring against the wall. And Ted is leaning in Henrys arms. He stopped crying at some point and now he’s just blankly staring at the floor. 

None of them dares to say something. 

Then there‘s finally a doctor, coming towards them. And he‘s smiling. 

Henry feels Ted slightly letting go of his hand. It already felt a little numb, but he didn‘t mind. 

Ted gets up and so do Henry and Paul. 

“Ted Richards?”

“Yes.”

“Your father is stable.” 

Henry hears Ted release a shaky breath. “Can I go to him?”

“Yes, but just you, is that alright?”

Ted nods, before he hesitantly looks at Henry. Henry nods too, letting go of his hand now. “Go”, he says, gently pushing Ted in the direction of the doctor. 

“I’ll see you?”, Ted mumbles. It sounds more like a question. 

“We’ll wait”, Paul decides. Henry nods.

Ted and the doctor leave as the doctor starts explaining. “Your father didn’t wake up yet, but he should within the next fifteen minutes. The operation..” 

Paul slowly lets himself sink back in the chair and Henry does the same. 

— 

Ted came back after about two hours and told them his dad is okay but fell asleep again and he’s going to visit him again the next day. 

Now Paul is driving them home. 

To Henrys home, that means. 

His mom called when Ted was with his dad, because the school called and told her Henry is missing without an excuse for the second time. 

So Henry tried to explain everything as good as possible and she freaked out. 

Then she started thinking logically, ever the smarter one in the family, and asked if Ted has a place to stay. Henry didn’t know so she told him to bring him to their place if he doesn’t. 

And now they’re on their way. 

Ted kind of calmed down. Henry’s pretty sure that seeing his dad alive helped a lot with that. He’s still clenching Henry’s hand though. 

“Is it here?”, Paul asks, stepping on the brake now. 

“Yes! Thank you”, Henry says. 

“Thanks man”, Ted says, letting go of Henrys hand now, so they can get out of the car. 

“You’re welcome. Call if there’s any news or you need a ride, will you?”

“Sure. Thank you”, Ted says, leaning forward and hugging Paul’s seat as well as Paul from behind, kind of patting his chest for a few seconds. 

Paul turns around as good as he possibly can. 

“I mean it, I’m here for you, okay?”

“I know. Thank you.”

Paul smiles now, patting Teds hand, still on his chest.

Ted let’s go of him and opens the car door, so Henry does the same. 

“Thanks again”, Henry says, “See you Paul.”

Paul smiles and waves and Henry gets out and closes the door. 

Paul drives away, leaving Henry and Ted alone on the sidewalk. 

Henry reaches for Teds hand and gently tugs to make him follow him to the door, what he does. 

“Do they know?”, Ted asks, probably meaning Henrys parents. 

“Yes?” Henry hesitates, looking at him now. He kind of felt like he had to explain, because his mom kept asking but now he slowly realises that maybe Ted didn’t want him to.

Ted notices his gaze and quickly shakes his head. “No! It’s fine, I’m actually glad. I only asked because I really didn’t want to have to explain it myself. Thank you.”

“Okay.”

Ted smiles and squeezes his hand, as Henry opens the door.

His mom immediately steps out of the kitchen into the corridor. 

“Hey!”, she says, “Are you guys hungry?”

Henry nods, only now noticing that they totally forgot to eat in all that time, and so does Ted. 

“Great! I’m making Lasagne. You don’t have any allergies do you?” 

Ted shakes his head. “Lasagne’s great. Thank you.”

She gifts him a smile, before she wipes her hands on her apron and comes to them. She just kind of hugs Ted, who seems overwhelmed at first, but then slowly hugs her back. 

“Mom”, Henry whispers, afraid that she’s making Ted uncomfortable. 

She pulls away. “I’m sorry, I should have asked. Can I hug you?”

“I guess. It was actually kind of nice”, he says. 

So she hugs him again. 

“You’re going to be okay. If you ever need anything, just ask. Your dad too, okay? We’re here for you two.”

“Okay. Thank you”, he says, looking at Henry now, over her shoulder. 

“Sorry”, Henry mouths. 

Ted shakes his head, before leaning it against the head of Henrys mom, who’s still not showing any signs of letting him go. 

“Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes”, she says after a while. 

“Okay”, Ted says, smiling at Henry now. 

Henry can’t help but smile too. 

“Mom, I think-“

“Yes!”, she says, letting Ted go now. “Ten minutes, alright guys?”

Henry nods. 

“Okay.” Then he takes Teds hand and pulls him to the stairs. 

— 

“I love your mom”, Ted says, as soon as they’re in Henrys room. 

“Believe me she loves you too”, Henry says, sitting down on his bed. 

“Can we just switch?”, Ted asks, flopping down next to Henry, on his back. “No wait”, he then mumbles, “I don’t want you to have my mom. But maybe we can share yours?”

“Okay”, Henry whispers, looking down at Ted, who’s laying next to him, staring up now.

“Do you want to get out of that?”, Henry asks, carefully plucking on Teds bloody shirt. 

“Oh. ..yeah”, he says, “You should too tho.”

Henry looks down on himself and realises that his shirt is kind of bloody too. It probably happened when he hugged Ted. 

“Yes”, he admits quietly. 

Then he turns to him and lays down as well, hugging him now.

“Thanks”, Ted breathes. And Henry knows it’s not for hugging him. Or maybe it is a little bit. But it’s also for not letting him go through the day alone. It’s the same ‘Thanks’ he gave Paul earlier. 

So Henry hugs him even a little tighter, nuzzling his head in Teds neck. 

“I love you”, he whispers for an answer. 

“Let’s cuddle for ten minutes?”, Ted asks. 

Henry nods. “Okay.”


	22. Dammit Janet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not even sure what this chapter is supposed to be

It’s quiet when they lay in bed next to each other and Henry turned off the light. 

Henry’s not sure whether they’re going to sleep immediately or if Ted wants to talk or cuddle, so he just kind of lays there, staring at the ceiling, waiting for Ted to either say something or fall asleep. 

He still remembers Teds chest, from when he changed into Henrys shirt earlier. He was full of bruises and it looked horrible. Ted caught him staring and blushed. 

“It’s not that bad”, he had said, his voice unsure, maybe because both of them knew it was a lie. 

“Did you have someone look at it?”, Henry asked. 

Ted nodded. 

“There were some emergency doctors before you came. They said I’m going to be okay. Don’t worry.”

And Henry nodded, but now he’s still worried. 

Ted’s mom is going to be in prison for a long time probably. They have the evidence. They saw what happened to Teds dad and if that’s not enough, they also saw what she did to Ted. 

He doesn’t have to be worried, but he is. 

Worried that something goes wrong and she’ll be free, worried that Ted is not going to be okay. 

Also worried to touch Ted and hurt him by doing so. That’s why he didn’t cuddle against him yet and also why he’s cursing himself for doing it earlier, before dinner. He kind of forgot and Ted didn’t flinch but he’s still worried that he hurt him somehow. 

“Henry?”, Ted whispers now. 

“Yeah?”

“Can you sleep?”

“No”, Henry breathes, even though he didn’t even try yet. 

“Me neither.”

It’s quiet for a while, then Ted quietly asks: “Can I.. Can we cuddle?”

Henry nods. 

“Yes.”

And before he knows it, Ted rolled over to him and wrapped his arm and leg around him, resting his head on his chest. 

Henry lifts his arm to put it around Ted but hesitates, when he remembers the bruises. 

“Can I-“ “Please. You’re not gonna break me.”

“Okay.”

Henry carefully hugs Ted, slowly, so he’ll notice if Ted flinches, but he doesn’t. 

“Henry?”, Ted whispers again. 

“Huh?”

“I’m scared.”

“I know. ..me too. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don‘t know. Maybe.”

“I‘m listening.”

“I just.. you know it’s stupid.”

“What’s stupid?”

“My dad almost died and I’m worried about how things are gonna be from now on.” 

“Like..when it’s just you two?”

“Yeah. I guess. I mean how are we gonna live? My mom was abusive but she had money. I might get a job. And he’s still an alcoholic right? I can’t even imagine how hard it’s going to be for him to get back into his old life. _If_ he can, that means.”

“But he’s going to try, for you?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure he still likes me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember me outing myself?”

“Yes, to your mom right?”

“Yeah well he was there too. And he’s been looking at me differently since that. I just-“ 

He takes a shaky breath and Henry’s not sure whether or not he’s going to cry. He pulls him a little closer, resting his head against Teds now. 

“I just want him to accept me, you know? I just want him to love me because I love him and he’s my dad and he’s the only family I have.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So what if he doesn’t? And what if he’s mad at me because I told the police everything? He loved her a lot.”

“You did the right thing. And if he doesn’t see that now, I’m sure he will after a while.”

“Maybe.”

“What did you talk about in the hospital?”

“Well not about any of the important stuff.”

“But you will, right? Maybe he’s ready to try and get it all right now?”

“Maybe. I don‘t know.”

“Well I love you. And I‘m here for you.”

“I know. I love you too, you know.”

Henry smiles now, pushing a kiss on Teds head. 

“Try and sleep okay?”, he whispers. 

Ted nods, cuddling even a little closer now. 

“Good Night, Pumpkin.” 

Henry smiles at the new nickname. Ted’s been trying those out a lot recently and they only get better and better. Henry loves it. He’s also positively astonished at how many pet names Ted knows. 

“Night, Love”, he mumbles back. 

— 

When he wakes up, he can already hear his parents in the kitchen. And he silently prays that they aren‘t overdoing everything. He knows his parents and as much as he loves them, they sometimes do too much and it gets embarrassing and awkward. 

Like that one time when Henry celebrated his birthday in middleschool and he had invited like five friends. His dad brought in a confetti-canon and that was the beginning of the end. The TV crashed down the shelf that day and one of the kids ended up with a glass fragment in his calf. 

That kid wasn‘t allowed to play with Henry anymore after that. 

Ted stirs next to him in bed. 

Then he blindly starts reaching for something, maybe Henry, his hand slapping over the mattress. 

Henry reaches for Teds hand and Ted immediately rolls back over to him, cuddling against him again. 

“Hey”, Henry whispers.

“Hmm”, Ted makes. 

Well at least it’s Saturday, meaning they don’t have to get up just yet. 

Henry wraps his arms around Ted and closes his eyes again. He can feel Teds nose nuzzle in his neck now and his soft breath. Ted places a kiss on his collarbone, then another, then he just stays there, his lips softly brushing Henrys skin without actually doing anything. Maybe he’s falling back asleep now. 

Henry turns his head to Ted, pressing a kiss on his forehead. 

Then they just lay like that for a while, slowly dozing off. 

— 

They wake up for real about half an hour later. 

Ted wakes up first, this time. He‘s just laying next to Henry, wearily watching him. 

Henry smiles. “Creep”, he whispers, his voice still kind of husky because he just woke up. 

Ted chuckles. “Why? I’m being romantic.”

“No, you’re staring.”

“Gazing, honeybun.” 

Henry laughs quietly and rolls slightly over to Ted, his hand sneaking over Teds chest and up to his cheek to hold his face, before he starts pressing kisses on his other cheek and temple. 

Ted closes his eyes again, smiling content. 

“Hungry?”, Henry asks, between two kisses. 

“A little”, Ted admits. 

“Breakfast?”

“Yes.”

Henry smiles and presses one last kiss on Teds cheeks, before he entangles himself from Teds arms and gets up. 

— 

“Hey boys!”, Henrys dad says when they arrive downstairs. 

The first thing Henry noticed is that there’s an amazing smell, escaping through the kitchen door into the corridor.

“Hey Earl”, Ted says. 

“Morning!”, Henrys Mom chimes in. 

“Hi”, Ted says again and Henry just kind of waves. 

“We made pancakes and also coffee. But we have tea as well if you prefer that. Or water or orange juice”, Henrys dad says to Ted. 

“Oh.” Ted looks so overwhelmed. 

“You like coffee, don’t you?”, Henry tries to help. 

“Yeah.”

“Coffee it is”, Henrys dad says, reaching for a cup and pouring some coffee almost immediately. 

“Henry you too?”, he asks, while handing Ted the cup. 

“Yes, thank you”, Henry says, carefully pulling Ted to the table now, where a lot of pancakes tower on a plate in the middle. 

“Do you plan on going to the hospital again today?”, Henrys dad asks, sitting down on the table as well.

“Uhm, yes. I mean i’d like to“, Ted says. 

“I can drive you later if that’s alright with you. I’m driving into the area anyway.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, want a ride?”

“That would be great.”

“Okay, sure buddy. Gonna leave in like one and a half hours.”

“Alright, thank you.”

“Do you really like coffee? Because tea or something else really isn’t that much of an effort. You can just say it if you rather want something else. Do you even like pancakes?”

Henry looks up to see Ted smiling now. Henrys dad is fucking nervous and Ted probably noticed. 

“Everything is perfect. Thank you, really.”

“Okay okay okay”, Henrys dad whispers, pushing the plate with pancakes towards Ted now. 

“We can make more if those aren’t enough.”

“Dad..”, Henry says now, raising an eyebrow so he’ll maybe finally calm down. 

He holds his hands up like he’s surrendering. 

“Gonna leave you two alone.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I should take a shower anyway.”

“Okay.”

He leaves and Ted smiles brightly. 

They are alone now, Henrys mom must have left earlier, but Henry didn’t really notice. 

“Sorry, he’s nervous”, Henry says. 

“Me too. But god he’s great.”

Henry smiles. “You’re nervous?”

“Well I really want your parents to like me.” 

“That’s cute.”

“Maybe someday I’ll ask you to marry me and when I do, I want their support okay?”

Henry chuckles but also blushes because good god. 

“They already love you”, is all Henry manages to say. 

“That’s a relief.”

— 

Henrys dad and Ted come back home about three hours after they left. 

Henry is in his room, laying in the bed with Frank-N-Furter. 

He tried to tidy up for the past hour because let’s be honest, his room was a mess. 

Then he just collapsed on the bed and Frank-N-Furter joined him, about ten minutes before Ted comes up the stairs. 

“Well if it isn’t my two favourite boys”, he says, as he comes in. 

Henry laughs quietly and rolls his eyes. 

“How was it? You look happy”, he says. 

Ted comes to him, sitting down on the edge of the bed. 

“He was better. And he apologised for spending his time rather drunk and then he told me, he’s ready to try and change. I mean I know it’s probably easy to just say that but shit, it felt so good to hear it. Like I’m actually really hopeful.”

“That’s good to hear.” 

He smiles. “Yeah.”

His gaze wanders over Henry and Frank, then he just crawls next to them, laying down as well. He lets his fingers run over Franks fur just like Henrys and their hands keep bumping into each other for a while. 

“How was the car ride? Please tell me my dad wasn’t being weird.”

Ted chuckles. 

“Your dad is the best. He has a great music taste too.”

“Oh god. Please tell me you didn’t bond over your weird goddamn music tastes.” 

“We totally did.”

Henry laughs quietly. 

“I can’t believe it. First my own father and now you.”

“Says the guy who only listens to showtunes.”

“Nothing’s wrong with showtunes.”

“Your favourite band is ‘Original Broadway Cast’.” 

“Sorry I’m not edgy like you and listen to indie rock bands.”

“Edgy like me and your dad.”

“Good god.”

Ted laughs now. 

“If I asked you to marry me by singing ‘Dammit Janet’, you’d totally say yes.”

“Bold of you to assume that I wouldn’t sing Janets part back to you, inserting Ted for Brad. It literally rhymes the same.” 

Ted chuckles. “Jesus, you say that like you thought about it before.” 

“What if I did?” 

“That’s kinda cute.” 

“I've one thing to say and that's Ted, I’m mad for you too”, Henry sings quietly and Frank-N-Furter gets up and leaves.

“He’s jealous”, Ted says, while he rolls over to Henry, taking in Franks previous place. 

Henry giggles when Ted snuggles against him. 

“Hey Janet”, Ted whispers and Henry can’t help but laugh.  “I love you so.”

Henry wraps his arms around him, looking down to him now. 

“I’m mad for you too.”

“Dammit.” 

“Literally shut up now.”

Ted giggles and pushes himself up to kiss Henry. 


End file.
